


"Kidnapped!" Extras

by WithywindlesDaughter



Series: Omegaverse [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha Fíli, Alpha rites of passage, Bonding, Courtship, Dis & Nali, Dis gives Kili a very interesting book, Dis has history, Durincest, F/M, Fili & Kili discover their secret place, Fili & Kili first time, Fili & Kili get The Talk, Fili & Kili growing up, Fili & Kili honeymoon, Fili & Kili learn how to make fire, Fili & Kili wedding, Fili asks for permission to court Kili, Fili has a dirty mouth, Fili has to leave, Fili loves him more than anything, Fili wants to run away, Forbidden Love, Hot smutly goodness, Kili finally presents, Kili gets porn, Kili needs to make a decision, M/M, Making Babies, Memories about what happened in Grelock's keep, Midsummer's Eve, Omega Kíli, Omegaverse, Other, Porn With Plot, Smut, Something bad happens, Tall dark stranger, Thorin gives Fili "The Talk", Thorin is an ass, Thorin's Princess, Thorin's a butt, What happened in the grotto before The Talk, and Fili's away, and Kili likes it, and SMUT, and awkward, and embarassing, and is fussy, and may be a trigger, and tries to keep them apart, and wants all Filis attention, because it's horrible, but he has to share it with Fili, but it's good porn, did i say smut?, it's Kili's secret, it's a pre-bonding tradition, look away Kili!, look away!, more Dwarven culture, no Fili & Kili, smutly smut smut, that's where!, the boys feel the need to try a few new things, then where would we be?, this is upsetting, who's very hot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:46:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithywindlesDaughter/pseuds/WithywindlesDaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bits an things that wouldn't fit into "Kidnapped!" but were too good not to write.  Some porn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "The Talk"

**Author's Note:**

> Fili & Kili get "The Talk" from Dis and Thorin.

**__ **

**__ **

**__ **

**__ **

**_ Kidnapped! Extras _ **

****

****

****

****

**_ “The Talk” _ **

 

 

 

On the morning before the Summer Fest Fili awoke to see Kili staring at him intently.  They had ceased pushing the beds apart and usually Kili would still be asleep, sprawled across him like a dwarven furnace.  “Kili?”

“It’s Midsummer’s Eve,” Kili whispered.

“It is,” Fili agreed, looking at him suspiciously.  All this week Kili had been acting odd, complaining of the heat, demanding his attention.  As if to confirm his thoughts Kili pressed his body up against him and nuzzled under his neck.  “It’s hot,” he murmured, nipping along his jaw.

 _“Yes, it is.”_   It was hot and the little nipping kisses Kili was lavishing down his throat weren’t doing anything to help his morning erection.  He wouldn’t even be able to walk to the privy in this state.  And there was something else.  “Have you been downstairs yet?”

“No, why?” 

Fili buried his face into his hair.  “You smell like… baking spices.”

 _“Mmmmmm….”_ Kili moaned indecently. _“You smell so good!”_   That was all it took for Fili to wrestle him over and press his mouth down over his other’s.  Whatever this strange new phase Kili was going through he was finding it very hard to complain as eager lips met his and he felt an erection grinding shamelessly against his own. 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

When they did finally make it downstairs they found their mother kneading dough for bread on the table.  “You two slept late.”

Fili at least had the decency to blush while Kili grabbed a plate of scones and the butter dish off the sideboard.  “We’re going swimming!”

“Again?”  Dis tried to act surprised. 

“It’s hot,” Kili replied.

“Just make sure you’re home in time for the start of tonight’s feast,” she reminded them. 

 

 

 

* * *

 

Thorin arrived somewhat later, looking for some lunch.  “Where did the boys get off to?”

“Swimming.”

“Again?” Thorin reached for some warm bread.  “It can’t be that hot yet!”

“They’re in the grotto.”  Dis slid the baked goods onto the cooling racks.

“Grotto?”  Thorin wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“There’s a grotto under the falls.  Nali and I used to go there when we wanted to…”

“Stop!”  Thorin put a hand up.  “I do not need to know any more.”

“…get away from overprotective older brothers.”

“Still don’t need to know.”

“Have you spoken with Fili yet?”

Thorin was in the pantry, drawing off a mug of cool cider.  “About?”

“He’s going to be asking permission to seek Kili’s hand.  As the head of his family you’re supposed to give him the talk.”

“Oh Mahal!”  Thorin’s head popped out of the pantry.  “Do I have to?”

“Yes,” Dis set out a plate of cold ham slices and pickled eggs.  “And I will talk with Kili.”

“Why can’t they just run off and get bonded at some little roadside temple and then surprise us all at the Summer Fest celebration?”  He slumped into his chair.

 _“Because they are the heirs of your house and must do things properly,”_ she explained as she sat down. 

“I knew that would come back to bite me in the ass…”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

When the boys returned to the house, relaxed and smirking at each other, they were stopped dead in their tracks by Thorin and Dis waiting for them in the common room.  “Fili, Kili,” Thorin addressed them.

“Uncle?”

“Mum?”

“Fili, I would have a word with you,” Thorin rose from his chair.  “Alone.”

The boys looked at each other nervously.  “Um, okay.”

“Kili,” Dis turned and walked towards her room.  “If you will come with me please.”

They didn’t know what they had done, but whatever this was it wasn’t good.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Thorin led Fili out to the small forge in back of the house and sat down on the bench, motioning for his nephew to sit as well.  There was a long moment of silence between them.  Then Thorin clasped his hands and leaned forward on his elbows staring at the ground, still not saying anything.  Fili arched his brows and waited.

“Fili…”

“Yes, Uncle?”

Thorin shifted uncomfortably.  “There comes a time in the life of every young dwarf…”  Fili’s head dropped forward.  _Not The Talk.  Anything but The Talk._   He was contemplating dropping a hammer on his foot just to get out of it.  It would be less painful than listening to his uncle lecture him on “natural urges” and “your Omega’s fertility cycle.” 

“I assume you two have…”

“What?” Fili’s head snapped up.  “Oh, um, well...”

“So you are planning to ask for permission to court and bond?”

“Yes, tonight as a matter of fact.  I have a sword and scabbard made and a pouch of gold I’ve been saving.  I even made him a courting bead.”

Thorin smiled.  “You’re very sure of yourself.”

Fili smiled back.  “I think if I waited another year he’d twist my stones off.”

 

* * *

 

 

Dis and Kili lay together on her bed whispering in a conspiratorial manner, Kili leafing through an old book with some very interesting illustrations.  “Where did you get this and why have I never seen it?”

“It is a traditional gift to receive upon your betrothal.”

“How is that even…” Kili turned the book several ways around.  Dis laughed and sipped her cordial.  They had a plate of ham, cheese and apple slices on the bed between them and she had brought a bottle and two small glasses from her locking cabinet for the occasion. 

“It is important to enjoy your marriage in all ways.  It isn’t just to make children you know.” She told him.

“I know,” he replied.  “I mean, so I’ve heard.”  He turned to the next illustration.  “What do you do if your husband isn’t, um, knowledgeable?”

“That’s why these things are important for you to learn,” Dis answered.  “Trust me, Thorin and Fili are _not_ having this same conversation!”  Kili giggled, the sweet liqueur spreading through his system.  “They are probably both just sitting out there staring at the ground.”

They ate, drank and giggled for the better part of an hour, leafing through the highly informative illustrations and talking over matters both domestic and connubial.  “The act of love strengthens a marriage, so it’s important to teach your husband well.  But at the same time you need to control when you make babies.  Some have large broods like stair steps, one after another.  Some have only one or two.”

“Like you and Da.”

Dis shrugged.  “We had planned on more, maybe try for a daughter.  But I have my two beautiful sons.”

Kili nestled in on her shoulder.  “What if bonding doesn’t make him happy?”  What he was really asking was _What if I don’t make him happy?_

“Husbands are not difficult to care for,” Dis reassured him.  “Let him know you admire and appreciate him, feed him well and make sure the two of you are skin-to-skin as often as possible.”  Kili giggled.  “I like that last part.”

“If you fight do not go to sleep angry,” Dis continued.  “Be united in the face of the world, especially where your children are concerned.  Fili is kind and considerate, proven in his devotion to you, and you two are obviously very loving towards each other.”

“About babies,” Kili began.

“Take the herbs without fail.  I will make sure you have enough.  You should start at least a full moon before the bonding ceremony.”

“Um,” Kili looked away. 

“Grotto?”  Dis didn’t need to be told the answer.  She and Nali had spent many a summer afternoon under the crystal falls.

“Can I have the herbs now?  Just to be sure.”

“A full moon, Kili,” she admonished him.  “Or you will go to your bonding with a round belly.  There are things in the book you can do until then.”

“Oh yes,” Kili picked it back up off the bed.  _“The book…”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 By the time Kili made it back up to their room he was humming happily, book in hand.  Fili was lying on his back, hands crossed over his chest, staring at the ceiling.  Kili closed the door and trotted over to the bed.  “How was it?”

“Horrible,” Fili whispered without shifting his gaze.  “He actually gave me instructions on what to do on our bonding night.”

“Ewww…!”  Kili shuddered, so glad he wasn’t the one who got Thorin for the ceremonial pre-bonding talk.

“I don’t know why we didn’t just run off to some roadside shrine and surprise everyone at the feast.”

“Because Uncle will kill us if we do.  _Upholding tradition_ and all that.”  Kili climbed onto the bed and lay across his other, book in hand.

“Were you and Mum drinking?”  Fili looked at him.

“Maybe…”  Kili decided he wasn’t going to let all the new secrets he had learned out just yet.  “Didn’t you?”

“Nothing,” Fili groaned.  “But, Mahal have mercy, I wanted to!”  He looked over and saw Kili leafing through a small book he had never seen before.  “What’s that?”

“A present from Mum.”  Kili answered.  Fili was feeling rather put upon now.  “A gift?  I didn’t get a gift!  You two were in there having a lovely time of it while I was suffering.”  He reached out towards it.  “Let me see.”

“No!”  Kili held it away from him.  “Omegas only!”

“What?  Why?”  Now Fili really wanted to know what was in there.

“It’s for after we’re bonded,” Kili announced, trying to wriggle away.  _“It has pictures.”_

“No you don’t!”  Kili squawked as he was grabbed and pulled laughing up into his other’s arms.  He struggled for a moment before being subdued by Fili lavishing kisses all down the side of his throat.  _“Fine…”_   They lay snuggled on the bed flipping through the colorful illustrations together. 

“There are a lot of things in here we can do before our bonding ceremony,” Fili commented.  “I like this one,” Kili turned to one he had marked with the binding ribbon.  “Look how they have their mouths on each other.”

Fili leaned over and nipped along his collar bone as Kili wiggled against him.  “We could do that now.”  He sank in to bite a mark. 

 _“Yes, we could.”_  Kili moaned.  “There are a lot of things in that book I’d like to do,” he said in a low, heated voice.  Fili reached up and cupped his other’s face in his hand.  He always melted when Kili spoke in that voice.  He would do anything and do it anywhere if Kili asked him to like that.  “ _Sanâzyung,”_ he panted.  “I do love you so much.”

He pulled his other down to him in a heated kiss and suddenly all the youthful energy they had burned off in their “swim” seemed to resurge through him.  “I need you,” Kili panted, pawing at the laces of his pants.  “I need your hands on me, I need you on top of me, inside me…”  He knew he had to encourage Fili to be forward with him, his brother was so afraid of hurting him.  Kili was vocal in his passions and his desires and usually that was all Fili needed to get past that internal barrier. _To keep and protect you…_

Fili slid off the bed.  “Just in case...”  He walked to the door and slid the bolt home to prevent anyone walking in on them and then stalked back, looking at his other with heated intent.  He slid his tunic off over his head, preening as Kili watched him with appreciation written across his face.  Fili’s form was solid, broad and muscled, a well-defined form worn with swagger and confidence.  From his mane of golden hair to his hard-won scars and his ink he was all dwarf, a young Alpha roaring into his prime and he wanted nothing more than his beautiful Omega, the one he had fought for, killed for, his One. 

He unlaced his trousers, letting them slide off as he laid Kili gently back on the bed, kissing him long, slow and deep, dipping his tongue languidly into his mouth.  He gazed heatedly into Kili’s eyes, now covered with heavy lids, gazing back up at him through dark lashes.  Deep clove-colored eyes like the rare dark gems that had come out of Khazad-dûm and were seen no more.  _“_ _Givashel,”_ he rumbled, causing Kili to catch his breath.  “Mine,” he lowered a heated kiss upon those full lips.  “Only mine.”

Kili reached up and dug his fingers into the golden hair above him.  “Yours,” the whisper barely loud enough to hear falling from those lips.

Rising up he straddled his other and gently rolled Kili’s tunic off.  Kili lay gazing up at him, a sultry smile igniting a fire in his other’s groin.  He trailed his hands up Fili’s muscled thighs and reached back to sweep over his firm buttocks as his Alpha smiled down at him approvingly.  There was nothing about Fili’s body he did not love and the long hours at the forge and at weapons had left it hard and well-developed.  He wet his lips as he ran his palms up his sides and down along his flat belly.  His eyes followed the swath of golden curls leading down his chest and belly to the place where the Maker had blessed him most generously.  Seeing Kili’s gaze shift down he grasped his swollen erection and slowly stroked it, putting on a show for his most appreciative One.  Kili reached up and carefully cradled his stones in his hands, rolling them as he chewed on his lower lip.

Fili sank down and pressed his mouth against the over-warm skin.  _“What do you think that will feel like?”_ Kili gasped as the sound of his voice. _“On our bonding night, when I first take you?  I will spread you out on the bed beneath me and fill you over and over again, mark you as mine, pound you until you beg for me to stop.”_  Kili arched back, exposing his throat in blissful submission, moaning under the possessive attention his Alpha was paying to it.  He allowed his legs to part, his erection constrained within his trousers but Fili made no move to press down and rut into him.  He moaned as Fili marked him, sucking and biting from his collarbone up to his jaw, growling as he went.

“Mine.”

“Yes.”

_“Mine?”_

_“Always…”_

He loved it when Fili was dominant.  He always handled Kili like he was made of glass, like he might break.  Kili knew it was out of love, that Fili treasured him above all things, but he loved the feeling of strong hands on him, strong arms holding him.  Fili’s breath was hot upon his skin, voice low and dangerous in his ears and he wanted nothing more than to be taken by the golden Alpha above him.  _“Please Ûrzudel…”_

Fili slid down his other and unlaced his pants, pulling them off as he went.  Kili was long rather than thick, gracefully angular, strong arms and chest from pulling his bow.  He contemplated what a rare beauty he was, how the other Alphas looked at them with admiration touched by envy.  When he was younger the thought of Kili bonding with anyone else made him burn inside.  When Kili chose him he was the most blessed dwarf in Middle Earth.  _“I love you,_ _Sanâzyung,”_ he whispered, kissing the inside of those long thighs.  He worked his was up to the last barrier they had broached earlier that afternoon, pushing Kili’s legs apart and flicking the tip of his tongue over and around the entrance.  Kili arched up and hissed, his arousal painfully evident.  As glad as he was that they had waited, Fili wanted to explore every part of this new experience to its fullest. 

Kili slid his hands down, intertwining their fingers and gasped as Fili leaned in and pressed his tongue against his entrance.  That place only Fili touched him, bringing shivers to his lovely frame, drawing moans from his lips.  Mahal had made his Omegas special, sacred lifegivers that danced fluidly between male and female, the rarest of jewels and Kili had chosen him above all others.  He pressed his tongue in deep.  Kili felt it jolt through him as he gasped and writhed beneath him.  _“Fili! Ûrzudel!”_   Fili pursued it cruelly, laving his tongue in as far as he could reach while pinning his other’s legs apart with strong hands.  He could feel the tight heat there as he ground his erection down into the bed.  _“Fi… Fili!”_

He surged up and pressed his mouth down over his One’s, kissing him hotly until his shaking stopped.  “Tell me why we are waiting?” Kili asked with hoarse voice.

“Because I am going to do this right,” Fili answered, gazing down at him with his eyes like the cloudless sky.  “I have waited this long, I do not want their to be any doubt to be cast upon us.”

“Is there any doubt now?” Kili replied.  “Is there any thought I would willingly be with another?”

“Never!”

“And is there another you would willingly have?”

_“I would die first!”_

“Then why?  Why not now?”

Fili pressed his forehead to his other’s and lowered his voice to a whisper.  “Because I want your beads in my hair when I do.”  A gentle kiss.  “Because I want to stand before Mahal and Yavanna and pledge myself wholly to you.”  Another gentle kiss.  “Because I will not take advantage of the fact that you are presenting to meet my own needs.”  Yet one more gentle kiss.

“Then can we at least do some of what’s in the book?” Kili asked breathlessly.

Fili smiled wickedly.  “I intend to do everything in that book.”  Kili wiggled in anticipation underneath him.  “Let’s start with the page you had marked, shall we?”

They rearranged themselves on tip-to-tail on the bed, Kili eagerly turning on his side to take his other’s engorged cock into his mouth.  He felt Fili stiffen as he aggressively swallowed him down and gasped out _“My Givashel!”_ before doing the same.  He worked his mouth down as far as he could get it.  If he had one complaint it was that Fili’s girth made him hard to swallow.  He felt Fili’s fingers slip inside of him, dipping into the wetness there, swirling around the outside, making him want to scream with frustrated pleasure.  He moaned around his other’s cock, sucking eagerly, not even trying to make it last as he felt his own orgasm building within him.  Taking advantage of the natural wetness between his legs Fili plunged his fingers in now, assured from their explorations in the grotto, caressing that spot inside of him mercilessly, holding him a helpless captive between his hands and his mouth.  He bucked against those fingers, convulsive shivers running up his back and down his legs as he reached around and rubbed circles on the sensitive spot behind his other’s stones, gratified in the muffled moan he felt vibrating up from his mouth through his cock.

They were both so aroused it did not take but a few more strokes before Fili was shaking and sweating.  _“Kili!  I’m…”_ and suddenly hot salty cum was filling his mouth, Fili jerking as he finished.  They slowed down a moment as Fili caught his breath.  Kili sucked his cock clean and lay back, smug in the fact that he could make Fili release no matter his intentions on the matter.  Regaining control over himself Fili pressed him back down into the mattress and again took him into his mouth, this time just teasing around the head and licking down the shaft as Kili panted wantonly under him.  He renewed his attack with his fingers, pumping vigorously in and out, Kili’s feet scrabbling on the sheet in an effort to gain traction. 

 _“This is so good Sanâzyung,”_ he panted feverishly. _“I do so love doing this to you.”_

 _“Fili, yes… Oh!”_ Kili’s back arched and his breath now came in ragged gasps.

_“I will do this to you every day until you cannot walk.”_

_“Yes… please….”_

_“Anywhere we go… I will just pull you into a quiet corner… slip my fingers inside you…”_

It was his great weakness, to hear his other speak so lewdly and without shame and Fili knew it, whispering him to his climax.  _“Fili…!  I can’t!  I can’t…!”_

Fili lowered his mouth back down on his cock and sucked hard as Kili came, Fili’s name upon his lips.  He felt him clench tightly around his fingers, the orgasm coming in waves as exhausted his cock twitched feebly with interest. 

They lay tangled together for long moments, just touching and trying to regain their breath.  Finally he turned, climbed up and wrapped Kili’s heated body in his arms.  _“Love you, Gimlelul.”_  Kili nestled in on his chest, fingers tracing the raven tattoo that covered the scar there.  _“Love too…”_ he whispered.  They weren’t needed anywhere soon, no one would interrupt them.  They closed their eyes and, if just for these few hours, everything was right with the world. 

 

 

_fin_

 

 

 And.... I was no way influenced about "The Book" by Walkerbaby's _"An Unexpected Love"_... *cough!*

http://archiveofourown.org/works/808653/chapters/1526217

 

 

***********************

 

Ûrzudel is Khuzdul for 'sun of all suns'

Givashel - Treasure of all treasures  
Nadadel - brother of (all) brothers

Sanâzyung - perfect (true/pure) love

Gimlelul (my brightest star)

The name given to Moria by the Dwarves is Khazad-dûm, which means _Delving of the Dwarves_.

The clove-brown gem Fili thinks of when he looks into Kili’s eyes is called a brown Axinite.

 

 

 

 

 


	2. "The Grotto"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili & Kili discover a secret place, something bad happens and Fili has to leave, Kili has some decisions to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The Grotto" has almost become a character in its own right in my stories. Part 1 of 2 concerning Fili & Kili growing up in Ered Luin as young Alpha / Omega. We learn some secrets about Dis.

 

 

 

 

**_ Kidnapped! Extras _ **

****

****

**_ “The Grotto” _ **

 

 

 

 

They first found the grotto on a hot summers afternoon when their mother and uncle took them swimming to escape the heat and burn off some youthful energy.  They were boys then, full of mischief and adventure and believers in magical places.  Fili and Kili were unusual for dwarven children in the fact that they could swim and swim quite well.  Their father had insisted in teaching them for safety around the multitude of creeks, streams and ponds that surrounded the mountain settlement of Ered Luin.  So now, while the adults paddled around the edges or sat cooling their feet, these two flung themselves heart-over-head into the pool and swam until they wore themselves out, a blessing for the adults in whose care they were in.

The gentle stream rolled down at one point over a set of round boulders and then into a pool, not too deep but wide and lovely to look at.  The bottom was smooth stones and gravel and remarkably free of weeds, an ideal place for two young wild things to play under the watchful eyes of their guardians.  The older was enjoying the chance to get his thick hair under the water when he heard a conspiratorial hiss from his brother.  _“Fee!  Look what I found!”_

Fili glanced back at the adults calmly relaxing and chatting in the shallows and then swam over to his brother who had surfaced just outside of the falls.  _“What?”_ Kili swam backwards until he completely disappeared behind the silvery curtain of water.  _“Kee!  Mum says to stay where she can see us!”_   Fili hissed after him.  Kili responded by reaching out, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him through the falls.

_“Kili, we’re gonna…”_   The words stopped on his lips as Fili looked around what turned out to be a shallow grotto, cool mossy stones surrounded by a silver curtain.  They could see out, but those outside could not see in.  _“It’s a secret,”_ whispered Kili.

All thoughts of the adults forgotten they explored the little space, quickly turning up evidence of previous inhabitants, an empty bottle, two cups, a metal spoon and other small odds and ends long ago dropped and forgotten.  “Who do you think lived here?” Kili asked.

“I don’t think you could live here, Kee,” Fili answered, looking at the spoon.  “It’s too small and wet.”

“Then it must be a hideout!” Kili got more excited by the prospect.  “Maybe bandits!  _Or trolls!”_

“Don’t be silly,” Fili chided him good-naturedly.  “Everyone knows that trolls don’t bathe!”

“Well it’s ours now,” Kili announced, firm in his decision that they were to be bandits and this was to be their hideout.  (In the summer, at least; when the snows came they would have to return to their secret lair in the barn loft.)  “We will be pirate kings and steal all the gold and jewels from the elves and their ships!”

Fili laughed, liking the idea of plundering elfin treasure.  Not even his uncle, who called them “tree shaggers” when his mother was not around, would argue with that.  “We’ll need a boat.”

“We’ll steal one!  We’re pirates, remember?”  Kili was getting very enthusiastic over the whole idea.  “Then we’ll hide our treasure in here.”

_“Fili, Kili, time to go home!”_   Their mother’s voice brought them back to reality.  Kili didn’t want to go back.  Pirate Kings didn’t have to listen to the adults and go home to eat supper and go to bed.  They ate in taverns and stayed awake until dawn drinking and singing with their mates.

“Come on,” Fili took his hand.  “We can come back and bring some of our own things with us.”

“Yeah, okay…”  They ducked under the water and shot out together, heads bobbing up as if they had just been swimming.  _“Coming…”_

They walked back tired and happy, full of boyhood secrets and the promise of adventure, unaware of the knowing smile their mother was smiling down upon them.

 

* * *

 

 

By the time they were in their forties they still came to the grotto, although now as much to get away from the adults in their lives as for adventure.  Adolescence had been hard for both of them, but in different ways.  Thorin had been rigid and unbending in his expectations upon Fili as the future leader of the exiled dwarves in Ered Luin.  “It is your responsibility,” Thorin would say over and over until it had become a mantra.  “Our people will look you.”  Fili could never be strong enough, wise enough, _anything_ enough to please his stern uncle.  Fili would respond to the biting remarks by buckling down harder and trying to be more the dwarf his uncle expected him to be. 

Worse, Thorin had broached the topic of sending Kili to one of the dwarven holds to foster and find a mate.  “He would be safe under the stone!” Thorin had argued.  “An Omega is always at risk living in the open like this!”  He and Dis had argued over it for weeks, Dis threatening to put him out of her house, to pack-up and take the boys away from him.  “You will not break-up my family,” she warned.  “I have lost enough!  They have lost enough!  Kili will choose a mate here when he is ready!”

“And what if he chooses one from another hold?” Thorin asked. 

“Then we will go with him!”  Dis, when angry, was a force one did not cross but at great personal risk.  Rarely did she lose her temper, but when she did those who were wise quickly found another part of the settlement to be in.  “Fili is needed here!”  Thorin yelled equally as loud.

Finally Kili himself put an end to it.  _“The decision is not yours to make!”_ he told both of them in a quiet voice that cut through the anger in the room.  Kili did not get angry, not the way other dwarves did.  One of the few times Fili had ever truly seen him lose his temper had resulted in a room full of broken furniture.  _“I will choose my mate, I will choose where to live and I will choose who lives in my home.  Not you.  Not ever.”_   And with that he had turned and walked out of the house, Fili quietly trailing along behind.  They walked straight out to the creek, stripped down without a word and swam under the falls.  The grotto was cool and private and the noise of the water drowned out the thoughts of anger and frustration and washed them away.

Fili leaned back.  _“Nadadel,_ you never cease to amaze me.”

“How so?”  Kili closed his eyes in the cool, dim light.

“I could never stand up to him like that.”

“When the time comes, you will.”

 

* * *

 

 

At forty dwarves graduated from childhood to adulthood.  To ease the transition there was a period of _“ughred”_ where they were allowed to stretch their wings a little, make some mistakes, and if they got out of hand adults would say “It’s just the _ughred.”_   The Sons of Dis were no exception.  Fili apprenticed in the forge under Thorin, Dwalin and Gloin.  Kili followed Nali’s path, learning to make bows and arrows of exceptional quality, and fine leatherwork from Dis.  Together they crafted their own weapons, learning to make blades, scabbards, holsters and belts.  Kili would spend hours beside his brother in the forge, shaping arrowtips; bodkins that would pierce the ill-made chainmail worn by goblins and the bigger broadheads used for hunting heavy game.  Fili would watch fascinated as he sliced, shaved and shaped goose flights for his arrows with a small, razor-sharp knife.  Fili had the patience to spend endless winter hours hammering and folding metal until it was pliant and free of its natural brittleness.  With experience he started to make swords worth admiring, Gloin taught him to make throwing axes, Dwalin taught him fine detail work.  Together their efforts were beginning to be in demand and their elders knew their weapons would bear names and have stories told of their great battles, like the axes Dwalin proudly wore across his back.

Their work started to earn them a little money as well, most of it going to their mother, much of the rest going to the taverns in town.  At night, after they helped clean up supper, they would walk side by side to meet their friends and toast off an evening together in rude company and good cheer.  And if there was the occasional fight, what of it?  Just a crowd of young dwarves enjoying their youth.  Just the _ughred._   Tables and chairs would be righted, bloody noses pinched off, more ale called for.  The older dwarves made sure it never truly got out of hand.

One hot afternoon in the sticky heat that rose up from the valley towards the end of summer they called off work early and went to the tavern to drop a few coin.  The forge had become unbearable, the tanning sheds unspeakable, even for dwarves, so they strolled into The Brass Bell with some of their friends to down a few before going home.  By this age the boys had begun to fill out, Fili a broad and sturdy young Alpha, Kili a tall Omega with long limbs and glittering, jewel-like eyes.  They were each thought of as quite handsome, Fili having his father’s coloring and looks, Kili taking after his mother, and dwarves of both sexes flirted them up often.  Usually this was a friendly affair, often accompanied by laughter and perhaps a little good-natured jostling.  Fili, being older, had perhaps done even a little more than flirt, not that anything had ever come of it.  Kili had never shown that kind of interest in anyone, accepting complements with a shy good nature.

This day however Fili noticed one of the older Alphas looking over at Kili with an uncommon interest.  Kili didn’t even notice, happily chatting with friends, but still it annoyed Fili deeply.  He locked eyes with the older dwarf and glared at him.  The other just smirked and shook his head.  He didn’t know why it angered him so, but it did.  Kili shouldered into him with a grin and the anger dissipated.  The company of his brother was all he needed to lighten his mood and clear his head.  Let them look; Kili would choose when he was good and ready and he was too strong-willed to ever let anyone tell him different.

Later that day they lounged in the grotto, letting the cool waters suck the heat out of their bodies, just enjoying doing nothing.  It was their hideout, their privacy, their talking place where adults could not bother them.  “What’s the matter, _nadad?”_

Fili jumped awake from where he had been dozing.  “What?”

“I asked what the matter was,” Kili played with his feet in the water.  “You’ve been grumpy all afternoon.  Didn’t even talk through dinner.”

“Oh, ah,” Fili rubbed the back of his neck.  _“I don’t know,_ _bahzundush.  Must be the ughred.”_  

“Well stop,” Kili wheedled, trying to get him to smile.  “I don’t like it.”

Fili looked over at his Omega’s beautiful smile and felt the tension drain out of him.  “Okay, but just for you.”

 

* * *

 

 

By the time they were in their fifties Fili had become a serious, steady dwarf while Kili remained his sparkling self.  Their friends remarked that they balanced each other out, and indeed they did, Fili’s natural reserve a counterpoint to Kili’s bounding enthusiasm.  Fili would sit and count shots for Kili as he worked at target practice.  Kili would drag him away from his endless studies to go hunting or out with their friends.  Recently, though, Fili’s mood had turned dark and nothing Kili did could broach the seemingly endless line across his brother’s forehead.  Even drinks with their friends – especially drinks with their friends – put him more on edge.  More and more Kili found himself rubbing a hand across the back of Fili’s shoulders, feeling the tension wound up there like a spring wound too tightly.

It finally exploded out one night when a dwarf up from the trade road reached out and squeezed Kili’s arm in passing, looking him up and down appreciatively as he went by.  They had gone to The Grey Goose, a rougher sort of tavern that catered to travelers passing through on their way to somewhere further down the line.  Better chance to hear a new song or story, more chance for trouble.  Kili only had a moment to recoil as his brother’s fist flashed by him, catching the other dwarf in the face and the brawl was on.  The other dwarf was older, but Fili was a trained fighter and the crowd drew back into a circle to watch the fight.  Kili’s friends pulled him back and out of the way.  “Stop him!” he hissed.  “Don’t let him do this!”

The crowd shouted and placed bets as the two dwarves in the middle beat each other mercilessly, blood starting to flow.  Kili was frantically trying to get back to his brother’s side.  A blade flashed out, slicing Fili’s forearm open.  He grabbed the hand in both of his and snapped the wrist back hard, breaking bone; the dwarf going down to one knee and the blade clattering to the dirty wooden floor.  The fight should have ended there, but Fili kicked his knee sideways and delivered one more hard punch to the face, his opponent going down underneath him. 

Strong hands grabbed him and wrestled him back as he heard himself yelling, _“I will kill you!  I will kill you!  Don’t you ever touch my Omega again!”_ And then Dwalin was forcing him outside into the open air.  “Stop it!  Fuck!  I can stand by myself!”

The rest of their group crowded out behind them, Kili staring at him with a shocked expression on his face.  Fili turned away.  “Lads,” Dwalin addressed them without turning around.  “Take Kili back to the house and tell Thorin what happened.  Tell him we’ll meet him on the training grounds.  Go on now.” 

 

Kili lay awake and upset in his bed until almost dawn waiting for Fili to come back.  He was worried, afraid that they were hurting Fili, afraid that his arm might be worse than it looked at the tavern.  Finally he heard the sound of the front door opening and quiet voices, then weary bootsteps ascending the stair.  Fili entered in the darkness and sat on the edge of his bed, facing away from his brother.

“Fili…?”

“Don’t!  Just, don’t…”  He lay down on the bed and faced the wall without bothering to take off his breeches or tunic. 

Kili lay listening to him breathe.  “I was scared Fili.”  His brother did not respond.  “I’ve never seen you like that before.  I don’t even know what happened.”

They were silent until their mother tapped on the door with the morning light.  She looked tired and Kili wondered if she, too, had been awake all night.  “Come eat,” she told them.  “You don’t have much time.”

As they walked downstairs Kili got a good look at the bruises on his brother’s face and the heavy bandage on his arm.  The boys had dusted up their fair share of taverns, staggering home together happily with black eyes and bloodied knuckles.  This was far more than that.  Fili stared down at the table while picking at his food, not speaking.  Kili wondered what kind of consequences he might have earned with the violence of the night before.  He wanted to tell his mother that it was a rough tavern, that the other dwarf had pulled a knife, but the look on Fili’s face had frightened him and he’d never been afraid of his brother before.  He wondered how it would have ended if Dwalin had not been making his rounds and broken up the fight.  Could Fili have killed that dwarf?  And for what?  “ _Don’t you ever touch my Omega again!”_ Kili turned his attention back to his plate.

Thorin was not at the table that morning despite the early hour.  Instead he entered through the kitchen door looking somber.  “The ponies are ready.  Get your things.”

Fili nodded and turned towards the stairs.  Kili looked at Dis.  “Mum?”  She placed a reassuring hand on his.  “We’ll talk later.”

Kili looked to Thorin as if expecting an answer.  There were bruises showing under his beard and his hands were raw.  _“Where are you taking him?”_

_“Tusith,”_ was all Thorin would say.  Kili tried to work out the unfamiliar word.  “Hunting?” he turned to their mother.  “He’s taking him hunting?”

“I’ll explain after they go.”  She looked so serious that Kili just stood at the bottom of the stair and waited.  Finally when Fili walked down with his boots and his gear they pressed foreheads.  _“I will be back as soon as I can,”_ he whispered, leaving Kili blinking back tears.

Kili watched them leave in the dim light of spring, already feeling bereft and lonely.  “I don’t understand.  What’s wrong with Fili?  Why is Uncle taking him away from me?”  Dis put and arm around his shoulders and squeezed gently.  “It’s the _Tusith,”_ she answered quietly, as if it was not to be spoken of.  “A rite of passage for young Alphas.  They will go out into the wilds and Fili will test his own limits against the mountain and against his uncle.”

“What’s happened?  Where were they last night?”  Kili was close to tears remembering the broken skin on Thorin’s knuckles.  Dis tugged him away from the door and back to the kitchen, where she drew water for more tea.  “Fili has become a danger to himself and to others.  That fight in the tavern last night could have ended far worse than it did.”  Kili thought about the knife blade, the cut, the broken bones, all happening before anyone could think to stop it.  Fili had never behaved that way before.  “He needs a rock that he can break against, Kili.  Your brother keeps himself very contained.  Part of that is who he is, part of that is his role as Thorin’s heir.  But he cannot stay contained anymore.  He must learn to master himself.”

“I’ve never seen him like that,” Kili looked down at his cup.  “It was as if he really did want to kill that other dwarf.”

“He did, and he would have if someone hadn’t stopped him.” 

Kili mulled that over for awhile.  He was tired and his head hurt and he was scared over everything that had transpired since yesterday.  He thought about how Fili had become tighter and tighter wound, touchy, possessive, volatile.  It had been a gradual thing and he hadn’t even really noticed until last night.  _“How long?”_   He looked at Dis.  “How long until he comes home?”

Dis looked at him for a long while and then contemplated the tea in her cup.  “I do not know.”

 

 

 

They spent that spring together, Kili lonely and missing his brother.  If anything it gave them a rare chance to talk about things, to become closer.  He got his tools out and they worked outside in the yard, taking advantage of longer light.  Dis felt a great responsibility towards their community and she went out every day to the different clans, speaking with the elders, helping to settle disputes, negotiating marriages between contrary families, sometimes just reading letters delivered to those who had not the skill.  She visited the school often, making sure food was being delivered for the children to eat every day.  He was surprised to see that she even met with the men and women who lived on the outskirts of the settlement, farmers and herdsmen.  In his mind somehow he had thought that she stayed home all day making food and cleaning or doing her leatherwork.  He never occurred to him that she had a whole life that did not directly revolve around being their mother.

“I lived the first ten years of my life in Erebor,” she told him as they walked together.  “Never had I known want or hunger.  Then when we lived on the road…” she paused.  “Want and cold became my meat and bread.  I saw children die because there was no food.  Even when we came here we had nothing.  We used to travel every summer to work in the forges and farms of men to bring back medicine and supplies.  I learned how to grow and keep food, raise chickens.  My brother was not happy about that.”

Kili laughed.  “I like the chickens and I like your pickles!”

“So did your father,” she commented.  “He said I was the most un-dwarven dwarf he had ever met.”

“What was he like?”  Kili didn’t remember much about his Da.  Strong arms carrying him, a soft voice.

“He was a carpenter, the son of a carpenter; a tradesdwarf, not a warrior or weaponsmith.  He made very beautiful things with his hands.”

“Like my bow.”

“And my jewelry box.  He presented it as proof of his worth at the Green Fest and asked permission to court me.”

“And that’s when you got married!”

“No,” Dis stopped to greet some passing children.  “Thorin wouldn’t hear him.  He wanted to marry me to another royal line, or at least to one of our cousins.”

_“What?_   That’s horrible!  What did you do?”

Dis sighed.  “Thorin and I did not speak for an entire year.  I refused the ambassadors from the Iron Hills and the other dwarven holds.  He wanted me under the stone where my children and I would be safe.  I wanted the life I had built here.  I wanted Nali.”

They stopped and bought some meat pies and tea at a little shop in the marketplace.  “You loved him.”  Kili took a large mouthful of food.

Dis looked thoughtfully into her tea.  “He loved me as I was.  He didn’t expect me to be a _proper_ dwarrowdam and he didn’t care that I was a royal.  The things I wanted were important to him simply because I wanted them.  I could not have found a better match.”

Kili looked at her.  “But…”

“But yes, I did love him,” she smiled.  “And he loved me.  But it was a long time before we could be together.  In public, anyways…”

“Mum!”  Kili found himself blushing at the thought of a forbidden romance. 

“We were always honorable.  And Thorin was often away on his travels, but still we could not exchange beads and he could not speak for me in front of the others.  It was hard.”

“So how did it end?”

“I put a pitchfork through Thorin’s foot and pinned him to the dirt in my garden.”

_“You did what?!”_

“And then I threatened to pledge myself in service to the Temple of Yavanna and never marry.”

Kili stated at his moth open mouthed.  He had never heard this part of the story before.  “Thorin would have had to marry to continue the line… Mum, why didn’t he?”

Dis leaned back in her chair.  “He was, in Erebor.”

“He never told us that.”  Thorin had raised the boys on tales of Erebor that was.

“She was the most beautiful dwarf I ever saw, a princess from the east.”  Dis looked sad.  “She died in the mountain.”

“Oh,” Kili thought on that.  The notion of Fili being trapped somewhere facing death and not being able to get out made his heart clench.

“Come on,” Dis patted him on the arm.  “I want to go to the temple before it gets late.”

“So if Thorin wouldn’t accept the jewel box as a courtship offering what did _Adad_ give?”

His mother picked up her basket.  _“He built me a house!”_

 

 

 

 

The summer was lonely without his brother, Kili keeping busy as busy as he could to pass the time.  He helped Dis in the garden and on her daily rounds of the settlement, which wasn’t as bad as it sounded because folks of all races liked the friendly dwarf.  While she was visiting or working there was usually at least one older dwarrowdam to fuss over and feed him.  She took him to the temple to meet with the older Omegas and partake in the Rites of Yavanna.  He went hunting for elk with the other dwarves, his bow and hard-learned skill much in demand, and brought back meat for the smokehouse and a good hide to cure.  They even went fishing at the creek, Kili feeding the ravens with the leavings from their catch.

As they sat dangling their feet into the water Kili thought about the grotto and about Fili and not for the first time wondered if he was thinking about the brother he had left behind.  “Do you think…” he began. 

“Do I think what?”  Dis relaxed in the shade of an overhanging tree, watching the little fish swimming about her toes. 

“Do you think I will find someone who will love me the way Da loved you?”  He felt awkward broaching that topic with her.  She still went to the tombs and sang songs to the stone, her grief unfaded.

“How do you mean?”

“Well, Da loved you even though you weren’t a traditional dwarrowdam.”

“Yes, he did,” she waited patiently for him to get to the point.

“What if I don’t find someone who wants me the way that I am?”  The words came out in a rush.  “What if they expect me to change and be different after we are bonded?”

“Then do not choose that dwarf,” she answered seriously.  “Or do not choose any dwarf, that is up to you, but you must find your own path.”

Kili thought long on this, and again thought of the grotto, the place where he and Fili could be completely themselves with no one watching them, never the wash of other’s expectations. 

“Is this question about anyone I know?” Dis asked with raised eyebrows.

“Yes, well, no…”  Kili’s brows knit together in serious thought.  “I mean, I have thought about it, but no.  No one who’s beads I would accept.”

The truth was he had recently given it a great deal of thought.  Now that Fili was gone some of the unbonded Alphas in the settlement had started paying him more attention.  And that wasn’t a bad thing except for he wasn’t really interested, not as much as they were.  He wasn’t ready for babies and a home to take care of and to hang up his sword and bow.  He treasured his freedom and the life he had in the Blue Mountains.  The life he had with Fili.

“Don’t worry,” Dis gently pressed foreheads with him.  “It will work itself out.”

 

 

**_\- TBC -_ **

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bahzundush - Raven

Ughreg – “to be drunk” (although in this respect I am using it as “the drunken time”.)

Tusith – the hunt that is young.  I am loosely using it here to mean the hunt of youth or wilding hunt.  A time for young Alphas to get away from everyone, blow off some steam and get their shit together.  Sort of a rite of passage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part 1 of 2 and the boys are still quite young here so I wasn't comfortable with sexy times here. However there will be hot smutly goodness in part 2 - I swear!


	3. "The Grotto Pt 2"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili goes through a traditional Alpha rite of passage, testing himself against the wilderness and Thorin. Kili explores more of what it is to be an Omega. A tall, dark, handsome stranger comes to town. More Geirmund and Odne and more about Thorin and Dis' story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was just to be little stories about Fili & Kili stealing off to the best trysting place in Ered Luin and turned into it's own story (dammit!) In part two we find Kili exploring his Omega self in the face of many... um, distractions (or just one big one!) while Fili is out doing the Alpha rite of passage in the mountains. Thorin also opens up about his past.  
> Pt. 2 of 3.

**__ **

**__ **

**__ **

**_ Kidnapped! Extras _ **

**__ **

**__ **

**_ “The Grotto” _ **

 

Pt 2

 

 

In the mountains far from Ered Luin a young Alpha with golden hair and blue eyes stared silently into the fire as the sun set on a cold spring day.  They were still below the snowline, but he felt miserable and angry; resentful at being forced from his home, missing the one he left behind.  Without thinking his hand strayed to rub over his arm where a thick bandage covered a cut stitched closed.  It had been a bad night, his bruises reminded him, making the side of his face ache in the cold.  _“What were you thinking?!”_ Thorin had roared down at him. _“Someone could have been killed.”_

The truth is he hadn’t been thinking, so his response was simple, to punch his uncle and his King in the face just as hard as he could.  Thorin had returned the favor, the blow carrying him to the ground.  Among his peers the young Prince was the strongest fighter; close to the ground, compact and solid, trained by veterans of Azanulbizar and he would fight to the death to protect what was his.  But he was no match against the larger, stronger, more experienced dwarves who were his uncle and cousin.  They took every blow he threw, sidestepped his kicks, hit him back when he left an opening until his hands were raw and his face bloody.  _“He had his hands on Kili,”_ he had raged. _“My Omega!  Mine!”_

“He’s not yours,” Thorin growled back.  “He is not bonded to you, has not chosen you and you’re a fool if you think we would let him bond to someone as dangerous as you are right now!”

Fili grabbed one of the wooden practice swords and threw it with a scream of frustration; his only satisfaction was in hearing it break.  He sank down onto his heels, his head dropping into his hands.  _“I just can’t…  I can’t…”_

Thorin had turned to Dwalin and they conferred between themselves.  “I will take him in the morning.”

“Aye,” Dwalin agreed.  “Give him a chance to say goodbye.”

He knew of the _Tusith_ in name only;the rite of passage every Alpha went through.  It was not spoken of from old to young and now he understood why.  He was boiling with anger inside, an anger he couldn’t control and it was waiting for an opportunity to flow over.  It was a minor thing, what that dwarf did, something to be remedied with a firm decline if he were honest, a word of warning if he were not.  Truth, Fili had come to blows with dwarves over his beautiful brother in the past but those fights ended quickly and often in good humor.  He had wanted to kill that dwarf, end his life over a misunderstanding.  Now he was removed to the wilds with his uncle and forbidden to return until he learned to master his own nature. 

_“I will fight this,”_ he vowed. _“And I will win.”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Kili went frequently to the Temple of Yavanna that summer, sometimes to participate in the rites honoring the beloved of Mahal, sometimes just to talk to the other Omegas.  He sat listening quietly to Odne singing Songs of Remembrance in the cool stone chambers, the acoustics carrying the sound in an almost ghostly fashion.

He did not have the voice for signing.  Unlike his uncle with his cultured baritone or friend Bofur, who could bring a tavern full of dwarves to tears with his lovely tenor, neither he nor Fili had the gift, so they both relied on the spoken word, rituals chanted to the stone.  Odne sang a clear contra-tenor that rose and fell gently in the light of the sparkling lamps that gave eternal illumination to the Temple.  The truth was that neither boy had been frequent attendees, lacking the patience nor the will for the long periods of contemplation.  Besides, Kili had reasoned, Yavanna was the Mother of All That Grew and he preferred to spend the time outside in her forests and fields, not cloistered under the stone.

He woke from his thoughts to quiet; Odne had finished her song and sat gazing contemplatively at the altar.  “I do not see you here often, Kili.”  She was a soft-spoken dwarf who did not rely on formalities. 

Kili moved to sit next to her.  “I like it better outside.”

She smiled.  “My Geirmund is much the same, prefers the noise of the forge to the quiet of the halls.  Yours as well?”

“Oh, I’m not bonded yet,” Kili answered before he remembered that Odne would know that.  He caught her teasing smile and laughed.  “We, well Fili, he’s my brother…”

“Oh,” she replied, looking innocent.  “One would not have known.”  Kili ducked his head and blushed.  Odne pushed her silky black braids back over her shoulder and turned to address him directly.  “Have you given any thought to it?”

Kili chewed on his lower lip.  “A little.  I won’t even be of age to court for another ten years, but I haven’t met anyone, you know…”  What he didn’t say was that he hadn’t met anyone who could stand up to his Fili.  “How did you and Geirmund meet?”

Odne’s dark eyes sparkled.  “When my parents first brought me here there were many unbonded Alphas and most of them managed to find their way into our family shop for one reason or another.”  Kili snorted at that.  Odne’s family were known as the finest makers of jewelry in Ered Luin.  He could just see the unruly young Alphas standing in their shop, trying not to break anything while finding some excuse to be speaking with the beautiful Omega behind the counter.  “I think Geirmund came in to buy a gift for his mother,” she continued.  “We sold a lot of little things that year come to think of it.”  Kili could just see the rough Geirmund standing awkwardly in front of the display case, trying to make a good impression.

“I thought he was a very nice dwarf, upstanding, but…”

Kili raised his eyebrows.  _“But…?”_

“But nice is not enough,” she replied.  “None of them really stood out to me.”

Kili understood.  Most of the Alphas in the settlement were nice, but none inspired any kind of passion in him.  “So how did you choose?”

“The year I became old enough to court, Geirmund came to the Green Fest with offerings for my family but another dwarf, an older Alpha, challenged his right.”

“Oh,” Kili thought about that.  What if another dwarf tried to keep him away from the one he wanted to be with?  “What happened?”

“An honor battle was declared and they fought.”  Kili’s thoughts went to that night at the tavern.  “Geirmund won?”

“No, the other dwarf cleaved his head in,” Odne frowned.  “But I did not want that dwarf so I refused him.  I went to the Houses of Healing to see Geirmund when he finally woke and apologize to him for being so injured on my behalf.  He said that it was worth it; better to have his head broken for the most beautiful Omega in the Blue Mountains than to live his life knowing he hadn’t tried.  I think I saw him differently then.”

Kili thought about that for a long time, sitting silently in the lamplight.  There were some very eligible Alphas in the settlement, some of who he was related to.  Of all of them he considered Dwalin to be the most admired; powerful and self-confident with enough well-earned scars and ink to make any dwarven lord proud.  He was a Durin by blood as well, and despite all this he was kind in his own rough way, caring for the dwarves in his charge and decent to those around him.  Thorin was much the same, if more remote from his nephews.  But Kili didn’t think of either of them in that way, not as someone he wanted to bed and raise babes with.  He thought of every dwarf who had shown any interest in him, measuring each of them against his Fili and finding them short. 

He must have been frowning because Odne laid a gentle hand upon his shoulder as she rose to leave.  “Do not think overmuch on it,” she advised.  “You will know when the time comes.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Fili sat just past the edge of the meadow, his back propped against a tree and a short hunting bow in his lap.  He was making himself sit very still, trying not to let his thoughts wander as the breeze stirred across the early grasses in front of him.  He had chosen this place because it was downwind of the meadow and because there were old rutting marks on the trees made by deer antler.  Young bucks had come here to rub the velvet off during the previous breeding season.  He had to be still and quiet, one spooked animal and his hunt would be for naught, as it had been for the past three days. 

Thorin had refused to share any of his meat with him, tossing him a packet of cram and telling him to _“...do better next time.”_   The first time Fili flung the packet right back at him and stomped off to sulk in the woods.  All it earned him was a few days worth of hunger and frustration.  Thorin was a bastard who would make an easy kill and not share any of it.  Thorin was an ass who refused to let him return home to his Omega.  Thorin was bigger and more powerful than he was and a dwarf who hit back when Fili lashed out in anger.  So here he was trying to be calm enough not to spook a whole herd of deer into taking flight.  Again.

Kili was so much better at this than he was.  Slipping through the forest like a spirit beast he would follow the ravens to where they knew game sheltered.  Kili never set snares, he didn’t need to, his bow never failed and for all the teasing he received about that weapon he brought home meat and fur every time he went out.  Kili knew the forest as if he had been born to it, could still himself for hours waiting for his buck, who’s silky hair looked like a dark pelt under the dappled light of the trees.  For all his wiggly foolishness in the settlement Kili would never sit there and watch a buck walk right by him like Fili was doing now.

Fili blinked, back stiffening at the realization that his wandering mind had taken him to somewhere he did not now need to be.  He watched the animal moving slowly past him as it grazed.  Yearling buck, did well in the winter, no fat but still not too skinny.  The nubs of its new antlers just beginning to show.  It was relaxed, flicking it’s tail as it fed.  He waited until it turned his head away from him, raised his bow in a smooth motion and loosed the arrow.  The deer made a barking grunt as it staggered forwards and Fili loosed a second shot as the herd scattered.  He pulled his dagger and circled carefully around the fallen animal as it lay panting in the grass.  From experience he knew a “dead” buck could explode up out of the grass, hurting anyone near him on its way and obligating him to track it through the brush.  He approached from behind and slammed the blade down hard, the deer jerking once and then going limp in the grass.

_“Thank the Maker in his wisdom to give me the strength._   
_Thank Yavanna most merciful to place her creature in my path…”_   
_Only the foolish dwarf forgot where his food came from and meat was a blessing._

As he cut the throat and let it bleed out Fili considered the pelt.  The buck was still young and the pelt was in fine condition.  He wondered if he could manage to cure the skin at their camp and bring the pelt back to Kili.  Thorin already had several rabbit pelts started.  Deciding it would be a worthwhile use of his time he looped his rope around the animal’s legs and drug it into the woods.  He would get it up into a tree far from the herd and gut it, then bring the rest back to their camp.  He found a small stream for washing and decided that this would be a good place.  Tossing the rope over a low-hanging tree branch he hauled his kill up headfirst, intending to cut it throat to tail with his short blade and let gravity do some of the work for him.  He had a bag for the organ meat and that they could stew but the rest they would have to smoke out to make it last.  It would be plain but at least it wouldn’t be cram.

Just as his knife was making its way down the soft belly he heard a soft panting sound behind him and froze.  He had been close to that sound only once before and Thorin had quickly escorted his young nephews away before it got any closer.  He never went hunting alone, not far from the settlement anyway, and had forgotten that he was on his own in the mountains with no brother to guard his back.  Slowly he pulled out his long knife and backed up against a tree, looking around to see if he could spot the animal that was now hunting him.  When it did not appear he grabbed his pack and started backing away from tree to tree until he was well away from where the carcass hung.

_“Fuck!”_ he breathed.  This far from home was no place to be tangling with a big lion.  The smell of blood had drawn it and hopefully now the carcass was distracting it.  Fili carefully made his way back to camp.  Thorin was just building the fire up when he got there.  He looked at the blood still on his hands and the upset expression on his face.  “What happened?’

“Lion, I think,” Fili put his pack down.  “When I was cleaning my kill.”

“Damn,” Thorin looked over at their ponies thoughtfully.  He picked up his sword and bow.  “Let’s go look.”

They made their way back through the trees until they found Fili’s rope dangling useless from the tree.  A wide swath in the undergrowth showed plainly which way his kill had gone.  Carefully Thorin led him along the trail until they spotted a female lion crouched over the deer Fili had killed earlier.   It sat up when it spotted them, growling in a low rumble.  “What do you think?” Thorin whispered.

“I don’t know that I can kill it on the first shot.”  Then they would have to track it down, possibly fight to kill it.

“It’s a female,” Thorin observed.  “Probably has a den full of kits somewhere.”

Fili shook his head, no.  “It was a nice pelt.”

They made their way back to camp, Fili resigned to another night of cram.  He was surprised when Thorin handed him a bowl of rabbit stew.  “Stay away from that spot, he warned.  “She’ll bury the carcass and return to feed upon it.”

Fili nodded.  “I’ll go in the opposite direction tomorrow.  Find another deer.”  He took a bite of meat and chewed thoughtfully.  He didn’t remember Thorin’s camp cooking tasting this good, but at least it was meat.  “Thank you,” he motioned with the bowl.

“We can bring in a couple of good-sized bucks,” Thorin told him.  “Smoke the meat, cure the pelts.  We have time.”

That night Thorin took first watch while Fili lay in his bedroll thinking of the dwarf he left behind.  _“I’m sorry I didn’t get you that pelt,”_ he mused.  “ _Tomorrow I’ll get you one better.”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Kili, Ori, Gimli and several of their friends crowded into the Bell and grabbed a table near the fire.  Bofur was at the hearth tonight, telling tales and signing songs for those assembled.  He was a popular storyteller, spinning yarns with a glib tongue and singing in his clear tenor voice, filling the summer nights with music and good cheer.  The tavern’s owner, a dwarf who was wise in business, supplied him with free food and ale, knowing the crowd he brought in more than made up for the expense.  Tonight the room was packed full, the night too warm to stay home and sleep early.

“I love it when Bofur is the storyteller,” Ori spoke happily. 

“Aye, he sings well,” added Gimli.  “Made my Da cry once, t’was so pretty.”

Kili smiled, happy to be with his friends, but not for the first time missing the dwarf who should have been pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with him.  Fili loved it when Bofur took the chair by the fire and Kili’s thoughts were drawn up the mountain.  He wondered where they were and if Fili was missing him. 

His thoughts were interrupted when another dwarf squeezed in next to him.  “Kili,” he was greeted amicably.  “Good to see you out and about.”

Kili had to struggle for a moment to remember the other dwarf’s name.  “Pormoor,” he returned the greeting.  “Is your family well?”  An Alpha about ten years Kili’s senior, Pormoor came from one of the most affluent merchant families in Ered Luin.  He was a good natured sort, smart and good with numbers, not really the warrior type. 

“Aye, the trade road has been good to us this summer.  You should come by the shop, my parents got some silk cloth in, mayhaps your mother would like some.”  If he knew the family well at all he would know that Dis did not wear such things, but still, he was trying to make a good impression.  “Thank you,” Kili nodded.  “I will.”

“So, Fili’s away?”  The question was casual enough.  News of the fight at the Goose had made its way quickly through the settlement.  A few Alphas had even been so brazen to approach Kili shortly after his brother left only to be turned away in disappointment.

“Yes, I look for him to return before the snows,” Kili was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, not that Pormoor was being at all inappropriate, Kili just wasn’t interested.  He began to wonder if there wasn’t a graceful way out of the situation when a rough voice sounded from behind them.  “Boys, good ta see yah here.”

They turned to see Dwalin looming over them in his own special way.  He shouldered in next to Kili.  “Pormoor…”

The young Alpha nodded respectfully.  “Mister Dwalin, Kili, ah, I must be back to my table.”  Dwalin watched him go with a skeptical eye. 

“Thank you,” Kili whispered.

“Thought he looked outta place with yer group,” Dwalin scanned the crowd, always the soldier.  “He wasn’t bein’ a bother, was he?”

“Not at all,” Kili replied.  “I’m just... you know.”

“Aye, missin’ yer brother.”  The truth was Kili had been missing his brother very much and no matter how busy his summer had been it wasn’t the same adventure that he had always enjoyed.   “Thorin’ll have ‘im back before the snow.”

Kili hoped so.  It would be a cold winter without him.  He turned to his right to ask Gimli a question and noticed Ori looking at Dwalin with an odd look on his face.  Kili smiled at him.  Ori blushed and turned away.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Fili had not been idle during his long days in the wild.  They had pulled down several small trees and built a rough smoking hut, hanging the meat from racks and the pelts under the roof.  It was hard, physical work without much talk and Fili fell into his bedroll every night exhausted and aching.  During the cold spring nights he missed his furnace of a brother, and even when the nights turned warm he would usually awake with Kili sprawled across his chest.  Some nights would be sleepless and he would rise and walk to the top of the hill, looking towards home.  Was Kili asleep?  Was he missing Fili too?  Or was he sitting in a tavern pressing shoulders with another Alpha, one who was older and knew himself and could give Kili the things he could not.  Was he…

“Do not allow your thoughts to lead you down that path.”  Thorin interrupted his spiraling inner dialog. 

“How do you know where my thoughts lead me?”  Fili was frustrated and longing for home.

“You are powerless to change what is, Fili.”  Thorin was standing behind him in the darkness.  “You have no right to expect him to wait for you, _he is not yours.”_

Fili’s chest tightened and he stood with clenched fists.  _“Who are you to say what is and is not?”_ he growled through gritted teeth.

“I am a dwarf with a hundred years and a hundred battles up on you and I have watched this with each generation of young dwarves that has grown up in my care.”  Thorin’s voice was close to him now.  “He would bond to you just to make you happy.  Bear your children because he though it was what you wanted.  Give up his freedoms just to live as your second because you are his elder brother and he has always walked in your shadow.”

_“Shut up! Shut up!”_ Fili was shouting now.  _“What do you know about it?  You have no mate, no children!  What do you know about bonding, about love…”_ Then he was on the ground, a very angry Thorin on top of him.  “ _You know not of what you speak,”_ Thorin breathed in his face. _“I would stop while I still had my teeth, but you are not so wise as you think you are.  Speak again on what I know and what I do not know and I will make you silent!”_

Fili lay shocked as Thorin stood up off of him.  “What have you to offer him?” Thorin asked.  “But a hot temper and a fight in every tavern you walk into?”

_“But I love him,”_ Fili whispered.

“You think that love will keep him when you are in a jail cell for killing someone?  Would you feel his belly through the bars when you are locked up?  Would you have him come to the executioner’s block when they hang you?”  Thorin turned and walked away, leaving him on the ground.  _“You know nothing.”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

It was a Celebration Day honoring Yavanna, beloved of Mahal, and they had spent the morning observing her rites.  Dis had managed to get Kili into his nice things reserved for such days and even braided his hair, not that she expected it to stay.  He and Ori were planning to pilfer luncheon from Dis’ pantry when a deep, smooth voice interrupted them.  _“Excuse me, but I was told there was a dwarf there who could mend a bow.”_ Suddenly a dwarf taller than Kili with long black hair hanging down in coils and eyes like dark amber stood above them.  He wore travelling leathers and a neatly trimmed beard and Kili knew he was not from anywhere around here.

“I can fix a bow,” Kili blurted out when he realized he’d been staring.  “What seems to be the trouble with it?”

Without taking his eyes off Kili the tall dwarf pulled a short hunting bow off his back and handed it to him.  It was well made and much used and had a crack running right up it’s middle.  “Oh,” Kili examined it closely.  “How did that happen?”

“Fight on the trade road.  I came up with the caravan.”  This dwarf looked very much the warrior with his scars and his ink.  Caravan guard and well-travelled from the looks of his piercings and hair bindings.

“That kind of break,” Kili handed it back to him.  “You could bind it but it will never be as strong again.”

“I see,” the stranger considered his options.  “Mayhaps I should buy one new.”

Judging from the amount of gold he wore in his hair and ears Kili did not doubt that he could afford it. “You won’t find one ready made here, but I can make one.”

“Can you now?”  He looked straight into Kili’s eyes and Kili found himself noting this strange dwarf had dark kohl rings around his amber-colored eyes.  For a moment Kili forgot to breathe. 

“Um, meet me at the forges after luncheon?” he said, trying not to sound like the young, awkward Omega he was at that moment.  “I will bring some of the wood I have cured for bow-making and you can choose.”

The stranger smiled at him, little crinkles forming around his eyes.  “The forges, after luncheon.  Until then.”  Then he turned and walked back down the hill towards the town.  Ori and Kili stood there watching him, noting the easy swagger, sleeveless jerkin and well-made biceps.

_“Who was that?”_ asked Ori.

Kili shook his head.  _“I have no idea.”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Fili took a deep breath and plunged himself into the icy pool they used for bathing near the camp.  The days were warm but the water ran from a snow-fed spring and each and every time he went in his stones attempted to crawl right back up into the warmth of his abdomen.  He understood now why the wild dwarves who ranged with the mountain patrols commandeered the outdoor hot springs whenever they returned to the settlement.  He grabbed a rag and proceeded to scrub vigorously, not wishing to prolong the torment any longer than need be.  He was just wondering how long he could go without washing his hair when Thorin plowed straight into the water next to him, wading out to the middle and submerging entirely.

Fili stared at the spot where the older dwarf had gone under, wondering if there was anything that could bring him so much discomfort that he would finally show it.  _“I guess if you can face down a thousand orcs with nothing but a found sword and chunk of wood having ice water shoved ‘tween your legs is nothing,”_ he mused to himself. 

Thorin surfaced, tossed his hair back and exhaled heartily, as if he were somehow enjoying himself.  “You should wash your hair, Fili.  You'll scare off the game.”  Fili sighed and resigned himself to a full bath.  Thorin was correct, as much as he loathed the icy wash he was beginning to smell like a badger in summer.  When they finished they sat in the sun to dry, Fili enjoying the rare moment of inner calm.  He looked out over the mirror-like surface of the pool.  “Tell me a tale,” he asked.

This was an old game played during the long winter nights by the fire.  Dwarves would trade stories with each other, sometimes true, sometimes spun yarn, but always worth the hearing.  The boys had used it as an excuse to stay awake past their bedtime when they were little, Thorin telling them tales of his life in Erebor That Was.

Thorin chuckled.  “What would you hear?”

Fili swallowed, wondering what reaction his request would bring.  “I want to hear about her,” he said, carefully not looking at Thorin.  “The one you left behind.”  After Thorin’s angry exclamation the other night it wasn’t hard for Fili to guess.  He never spoke of it to anyone, but it seemed to make sense that Thorin, who held duty above all things, would not have left Erebor without an heir.  His uncle exhaled slowly and looked out at the hills that rolled on before them.  “You ask much.”

“Then don’t,” Fili replied.  “It was just a passing notion.”  Besides, the answer given already let him know all he needed to.

“No,” Thorin raised his hand.  “I will tell the story, but just this once.”

Fili settled in to listen attentively as the light clouds drifted over them.  “She was a Princess from the eastern kingdoms, it took years for Thror to negotiate the treaty and he paid a bride price to buy a kingdom.  She was to come to Erebor to foster and hopefully we would bond and make a match.”

“Dwarrowdam?”  Fili asked. 

“Omega, we had many then.  She was called Caliana Sabiya, The Wind of the East.  When I fist saw her I called her Laila Sadira, my Dark Star.  She had smooth black hair and eyes like jet and was unlike anything I had ever seen.  I was young, younger than you are now, but I knew when I first saw her that I would love her and her only for all of my days.”

“And did she love you?”

“We did not speak the same language as the eastern kingdoms and Westeros only goes so far.  We attempted to work it out between us but she had the nastiest old hag of a chaperone.”  Thorin looked distinctly uncomfortable.  “We had to be very creative about finding ways to converse.”  Fili smiled at that.  “But yes, we did bond to each other.  I expect our union would have been… fruitful.”

Fili didn’t need to ask the rest.  So many left behind on that day.  They still sang lamentations about it to Mahal.  “The dragon didn’t just go straight to the Hall of Treasure,” Thorin broke in on his thoughts.  “It wound through and about the mountain, rooting out the survivors trapped within.  The Omega Quarter was just off the treasury.  Some of us made it back inside to try to get them out, but…”  His voice trailed off in a hoarse whisper and Fili understood why it was not spoken of.  So few babies born to their people, so few of them dwarrowdams, all their hopes held in one place and the heart of one young dwarf left behind in ruin.  “I’m sorry,” was all he could say.

 

 

\- TBC -

 

 

 

 

Ûrzudel is Khuzdul for 'sun of all suns'  
Bahzundush - Raven  
Odne – Fire Eagle or Firebird (depending upon what gender Odne chooses to identify with)  
Pormoor – Bold & Brave (old name)  
Tusith –Alpha dwarf rite of passage.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always feedback is bread and meat to a writer. I am worried that my readers may have found this story upsetting by their silence. I hope the end will make up for it.  
> No beta - all mistakes mine.


	4. "The Grotto Pt 3"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili returns from his rite of passage in the mountains with Thorin. Kili has some important choices to make. And, yes, more of the tall, dark, sexy-dwarf-who-is-not-Fili.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here it is, part 3. The boys always seem to run away with their stories. This was a very difficult one for me to write. I know I am tiptoeing along the edge of propriety with this one. Thank you for sticking with me so far.

**__ **

**__ **

**__ **

**_ Kidnapped! Extras _ **

**__ **

**__ **

**_ “The Grotto” _ **

 

Pt 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kili busily checked the supply of arrowheads he had on hand in his box at Gloin’s forge.  He had plenty of bodkins, the long, pointed heads made for piercing chainmail, but very few broadheads for hunting.  Kili was the best at making bows and arrows in the settlement and his hunting supplies were much in demand.  He had some fine hardwood cured, different species of tree depending on how strong you needed it to be and what you wanted it to look like.  Most dwarves used very plain bows for hunting, if they used one at all, but sometimes he would be commissioned to make a special one as a gift.  He preferred to use ash; hard, yet still flexible enough for a good draw.  He picked up a piece and sighted along it, noting the steady, flat plane of it.

His thoughts were interrupted by the bell on the door.  Looking up his eyes met dark amber ringed by kohl.  “H… hello,” he stammered, inwardly cringing at his own awkwardness.  “I, um…”

“Ulfarr, at your service.”  

“Kili, at yours and your family’s.”

“Kili,” the tall, dark dwarf rolled the name around on his tongue as if tasting it.  Then he pulled the bow from his back and laid it on the table.  “I would see what you have to offer.”

Kili brushed down the rumpled front of his tunic and pulled his own bow from it’s holster.  “This one’s mine,” he handed it to the other dwarf. 

“You make this?”  Ulfarr ran his hands over the smooth wood, noting the well-used grip and wear-mark at the arrow-rest.  “I did,” Kili replied proudly.  “I used my father’s patterns.”

Ulfarr gave the string an experimental pull, testing the flex and resistance.  “This is good, you do very good work.”  Kili’s chest swelled with pride.  “You make your own arrows as well?”

Kili pulled his quiver from the wall and produced several arrows, mostly broadheads but he always carried a few bodkins just in case.  “I use these for hunting,” he handed over one tipped with a hammered broadhead.  Ulfarr thumbed over the edge appreciatively, then picked up one of the others and appraised it knowingly.  “And these for hunting of another kind.”

Kili felt an unusual stirring within him.  Most dwarves did not consider the bow a weapon for combat at all but it was clear that this dwarf had seen more than his share of fighting.  He let his eyes trail down over the well-developed arm, noting the scars and trying to read the tattoos on the dark skin.  Ulfarr leaned in close to him.  “If I give you an arrowhead can you duplicate it?”

Kili licked his lips.  The other dwarf was standing very close to him and he wasn’t sure that he minded it at all.  “Let me see it.”  Ulfarr pulled an arrowhead out of his pouch and pressed it into Kili’s hand.  He was warm, warmer than he was used to in another dwarf.  He looked down at the strange thing in his palm.  It was a four-pronged arrowhead with wicked, curved barbs.  _“This you set on the end of the shaft with wheat paste,”_ Ulfarr said in a very low voice, his head practically touching Kili’s. _“You use it when men attack.  They pull out the shaft but the head stays inside.”_

Kili considered this for a moment.  “I’ve never seen one, but I’d like to try.”

Ulfarr smiled, just giving Kili a glimpse of big, even teeth.  There was a hint of gold there too and Kili wondered just how rough this dwarf got.  “The caravan is staying until just past Durin’s Day.  I would have a dozen each of these and of the ones you make.”  He pressed several gold coins into Kili’s palm.  “There will be more when I return.”

As he straightened and turned to leave Kili blurted out, “Wait!”

Ulfarr turned back, his eyebrows raised.

“You didn’t pick the wood for your bow.”  Inwardly Kili cursed himself for sounding like a young girl.

The other considered it for a moment and then turned back towards the door.  “Make it the same as yours,” he called as he walked out the door.  “Only bigger.” 

Kili stood and watched him leave, a little breathless.  In his hand was enough gold to pay for everything the other dwarf had ordered.  _“Bigger,”_ he whispered.

  

* * *

 

 

Fili lay in his bedroll unable to sleep.  His was first sleep, second watch, but he was restless and uneasy.  Something was wrong, he knew something was wrong and every time he closed his eyes something told him to get up.  After laying for what seemed like forever listening to the small sounds of the night pass by he finally surrendered and got up, going to join Thorin where he sat outside the ring of light from the fire.

“You should sleep.”

“Can’t.”  Fili sat close and pressed shoulders with his uncle.  “Something’s wrong.”

Thorin was never one to ignore his instincts.  He sat and listened quietly, his eyes scanning the darkness around them.  “Here or at home?”

Fili thought about that.  “I don’t know.  Just feel as if there is something I should be watching out for.”

They sat together in the darkness for awhile, Thorin waiting for Fili to speak.  Finally he asked the question Fili did not want to answer.  “What will you do if he chooses another?”

Fili’s breath hitched.  “I will stand with him as he says his vows and I will...”  The words failed him.  _Go on.  Find another.  Wish him well.  Watch as he raised another dwarf’s children.  Rule side-by-side yet apart…_

“Your duty is to protect and keep him until the day that duty is taken up by another,” Thorin gently rubbed small circles into his back.  “You cannot keep him tucked away until he is old enough to bond.  And even if he was to choose you, you might not be his first.  I know it is hard, but it is always the Omega’s choice.”

Fili let his head fall forward.  There was a part of him that wanted to lock his brother away where no one could see him and no one could touch him.  It was the part of him that was grasping and wanting and petty and would lead all their kingdom to ruin if he did not master it.  Wasn’t Thror enough?  The gold sickness?  Moria?  All those dwarves burned and for no good reason.  Thrain lost, Frerin dead.  The responsibility for their nation in exile cast onto Thorin’s shoulders at the age he was now. 

A nervous wicker from one of their ponies interrupted his thoughts, Thorin stiffening beside him.  _“What is it?”_   Letting his eyes roam over the darkness he thought he saw a darker shadow gliding along the edges of their camp.  Thorin let out a high, sharp whistle and the shape froze, two amber eyes shining back at them in the dimly reflected light of their fire.  _“Lion,”_ he whispered.

Carefully Fili crept back to his bedroll for his swords.  Thorin went towards the fire and picked up a burning brand with one hand, his axe with the other.  The ponies were on the alert now, stamping at their pickets.  They watched as it paced the outside of their encampment, pausing now and again to sniff the earth.  _“It is the same one?”_ whispered Fili.

_“I do not know.”_ They watched as it melted off into the darkness.  _“It’s coming in after the meat or the ponies.”_ He did not fear battle, but he did not look for it either against a foe that could easily send either one of them home across his mount.  Still, he would not flinch away if the beast returned.  _“We will know more when the sun rises.”_ There was no more sleep for either of them that night.

 

* * *

 

 

_“Tuva, you have to breath.”_   Kili was on his knees supporting the back of an Omega not twenty years older than he was.  The other gripped the edge of the bed, sweat rolling off his brow.  _“I can’t,”_ he panted. _“He won’t come!”_ This was Tuva’s first birthing and Dis was coaching him through the last hours of delivery while Kili helped.  He was too young for this and Dis had tried to make sure he was taking the herbs but he conceived anyway.  Now he was at the hard pass and they were determined to get him through it.

It had been an excruciating day with Dis sending word to the forge to ask him to come and help.  He had assisted in birthings before, but not this close and not one so hard.  Tuva had been in labor since the day before and Dis was worried for the baby’s safety if it did not come soon.  She had told him stories of babies being cut from the mother’s womb, but that was a do-or-die measure and even Gloin wouldn’t do it unless he had to.  This first labor had been hard on Tuva and now he was exhausted and having trouble pushing.  Omega birthings could be difficult and Dis had been hoping to get Tuva and his mate Boje to wait at least another decade but they were eager and in love and not for the first time his thoughts turned to Fili.

“I can feel the head,” the midwife said from her position on the floor.  “He’s crowning.  You’re almost there.”

Kili grabbed a cloth a wiped the perspiration from Tuva’s face.  Would it be this hard for him?  Would he be able to have babies at all?  Fili loved children.  He would sit patiently while they climbed all over him, bounce them on his knee, carry them around in the crook of his arm.  “One more big push and you’re there!”

Tuva wrenched one last cry from his exhausted body and all of a sudden there was a baby, covered in gook and looking all scrunched and wrinkled in the midwife’s arms.  “Big head on this one,” she commented.  “Like his Da!”

Tuva laughed and leaned back against Kili, his strength gone.  “I’m going to break his Da’s big head, just as soon as I can walk.”  There seemed to be a general birthing room consensus among new mothers that once the baby was out their mates were in mortal danger of either having their heads broken or their stones cut off.  As soon as the cord was cut and clamped Dis took charge of the newborn, bathing him in warm water and swaddling him against the cold.  Then she took him out to meet his anxious father while Kili stayed behind to help with the clean-up. 

Once the new mother was clean and tucked in Kili pressed foreheads with him.  _“Praise to Yavanna for this day.”_

“Thank you,” Tuva squeezed his hand.  “There is one more thing; the incense.  Would you mind?”

“Of course,” Kili took the packet of incense from the bedside table.  As he walked out he saw a tearful Boje holding his son.  He patted him gently on the shoulder and made his excuses.  In the Temple there was an alter devoted to Yavanna where new mothers and their families gave offerings to celebrate a successful birth.  So few babies and so few of those girls.  It was expected that Fili father children.  Required of him really.  What if Kili could not?  Or what if, after the first, he found that he could not have more?  Kili sat in the meditation chamber and wondered when he had started to think these thoughts at all.

 

* * *

 

 

The lion did not return that day nor the next.  Thorin had found some prints along the waters edge.  “See here,” he pointed out.  “This footprint is bad.  He is injured.”

“Maybe he can’t hunt like that,” Fili observed.  “So he’ll risk raiding the camp.”

“We should stay close for the next couple of days,” Thorin answered.  So instead of hunting Thorin worked on Fili’s new tattoo, a pattern commemorating his _Tusith_ on back of his shoulder.  Fili sat shirtless by the remains of the fire, his elbows on his knees and hands to his forehead while Thorin tapped away with the small hammer and iron needle.  It was a long process which required the breaking of the skin and rubbing ash into it.  This was an older, more ritualistic form of body marking and was always done by a relative or guardian.  It took time and it hurt, but it was important. 

As he sat quietly Fili’s thoughts turned towards home.  “Durin’s Day is not far off.”  Thorin grunted in agreement.  They were both feeling the long absence, but Thorin was used to it.  But still, the time for hunting would pass, the weather would turn cold and the snows would come.  Thorin started humming a low chant in the old language to the rhythm of the hammer and Fili let his head drop down, clearing his mind of thoughts that wandered this way and that.  Their stay had been good; plenty of meat to bring home, some nice pelts. 

“Not every Alpha takes the _Tusith,”_ Thorin spoke softly.

“Really?”  Fili did not look up to ask the question.  “Why?”

“Some do not seem to need it.  They are not aggressive dwarves to begin with.  They do not stir that pot of anger until it overflows.”

“I did not think that I did until it was upon me.”

Thorin paused to rub some ash into the fresh markings.  “You are a warrior bred of the blood of kings.  There will be times when you _must_ be angry.  There are those who _need_ fear your wrath and retribution.  But you must temper and control it.  You cannot let it control you.”

“When did you take yours?”

Thorin sat back and carefully wiped his tools clean.  “I never did.”

“What?”  Fili sat up and looked at him.

“When I was your age I was leading my people through the wilderness.  After that I was at Azanulbizar.”  He packed his tools away and handed Fili his shirt.  “I had anger and grief enough to fill an ocean and still it was not enough.”

“I am sorry,” Fili bowed his head.  “It was rude of me.”

Thorin slid a gentle hand around the back of his neck to press foreheads.  “Every day I give thanks to The Maker that you and your brother have the chance to live a good and proper life.  I am so proud of you both.”

Fili could not stem the fall of tears from his eyes and he was not ashamed.

 

* * *

 

 

Kili carefully tacked the end of the leather wrapping of the bow he had been working on for the past halfmoon.  He enjoyed working with the delicate saws and files, planing the wood, steaming and bending it to a pleasing shape.  His father had been a master of fine woodwork; making the beautiful bench seats in the temple and his mother’s jewelry box, inlaid with the nacre he had travelled to the sea to collect.  It was he who had built the house they now lived in.  He who made the bow that hung proudly over their mantle.  Kili had found his tools and forms packed away in a chest in his mother’s room and was fascinated.  There were bits of wood of all colors and grains, burled walnut for paneling, dark woods that he never learned the names for.  The tools were fine and delicate for a dwarf but they fit Kili’s graceful hands and when he came of age to apprentice he chose to take up those tools and shape beautiful things.

He was not as strong at metalworking, that was Fili’s talent.  He did detail work and fine things that took a light touch.  The new arrowhead fascinated him.  He had even gone so far as to attach it to one of his own arrowshafts and try it on a straw target.  It had gone in deep but what’s more is that he had to dig it out with a knife.  He could see using these in a battle against a bigger opponent.  He had managed through trial and error to make twenty by the time the bow was finished, spending most of his days at Gloin’s workshop.  They were tricky but Gloin had spent some time showing him how to bend the hot metal into the shapes he wanted.

The bow itself was strong and smooth and he stained the wood dark like its owner.  He had tipped it with metal over each end and reinforced the grip, knowing that this bow was going to get a lot rougher wear than the one he carried on the hunt.  He was proud of his work and even if some in their community had no appreciation for the weapon he, Thorin and Fili had brought back a lot of game over the years that Dis had used to keep the poor in her care from going hungry.

Giving it one last swipe with the polishing cloth he set it into his box along with the arrows and decided to go find Ulfarr and let him know the bow was ready for inspection.  It would be good to get out for awhile, maybe find Ori and Gimli and spend some time in the tavern.  He didn’t know which of the inns he would be staying at but they might know at the stables.  He decided to check there first.  If nothing else he could always leave a message.

Walking down the middle of the settlement a familiar voice called from a shop on the road.  “Kili!”  Ori bounded out, bag clutched in his hands.  “Does this mean you’re done?”

Kili laughed and bumped shoulders with the red-haired dwarf.  “I think so.  Are you going to the storytelling tonight?”

“Yes, but first I have to deliver some manuscripts I was working on.”  Ori patted his bag with a gloved hand.

“See you tonight, yah?”  They parted ways and Kili walked along, humming happily.  He rounded a corner into the stableyard where traveler’s horses were kept while they stayed in town and stumbled to a halt.  There with his back to him was Ulfarr, tunic off, scraping water from a small, mahogany colored horse.  Kili stood at the gate and watched as muscles moved under the tattoos, the well-developed shoulders shifting with every stroke, the horse tossing its head, enjoying the rubdown.  The tall dwarf continued all the way down the flanks, rubbing a long, curved scraper over the horse’s skin and flicking the water off until he turned and spotted Kili watching from the gate.  Kili blushed; suddenly embarrassed to admit he’d been standing there.

_“Kili,”_ he called, turning towards him. _“Come here.”_

Kili sucked in his lower lip and walked into the yard.  He was used to the calm little ponies used around the settlement and the big, quiet drafts used by the farmers.  This animal was something else altogether.  “Is he yours?”

“Have you never seen one like him?”  Kili shook his head.  “He is from the East, as am I.”  Ulfarr took Kili’s hand and pressed it to the animal’s damp neck.  The hair was smooth and sleek, dappled with rich shades of dark golden brown while his legs, face, mane and tail were all black.  The animal turned it’s head to regard him with a large, dark eye.

“These horses are old, older than the Mearas of the Rohirrim,” he said.  “The Maker formed them of the desert winds so they might fly.”

The horse bunted it’s nose into his tunic and snuffled him.  “He’s beautiful.”

“Let me show you.”  Moving behind him, Ulfarr guided his hands to the animal’s dark head.  “See the rise of his forehead here?  It gives him greater breath to run with.  And those long lashes,” he bent over to look at Kili’s face.  “Keep sand and dust from the road from his eyes.”  Touching the muzzle and soft lips he said, “His skin is dark to protect him from the desert sun, like mine.”  Their hands moved together down the gracefully arched neck.  “And here,” he guided Kili’s hands over the animal’s back.  “He has one less vertebrae than a common horse.  It makes him strong and compact, like us.  And like us they cannot be brought to ground.” 

“Does he have a name?”  Kili gently combed his fingers through the dark hair drifting over the horses shoulders.

“I call him Nottfax, and he is as a brother to me.”  Kili stood enjoying touching the rare animal.  _Nottfax, The Night Mane._

_“Now,”_ Ulfarr breathed, his voice barely a whisper. _“What brings Little Kili here.  Surely not just to watch me bathe my horse?’_

“Oh,” Kili blushed scarlet.  “Um, your bow.  It’s ready for you to look at.”

“Is it?,”  Ulfarr smiled down at him.  “Then let us go have a look.”  He took Nottfax’s rope and led him back inside the stables, pausing to shrug into his jerkin and then up the road they went to the forges. 

Kili pulled the bow from his worktable and handed it the other dwarf with pride.  Ulfarr ran his hands slowly over the wood, swiping his thumb up and over the braided grip.  Tightening his hand on it he tilted it to try the balance, pulling the sinew to test the draw.  “This is,” he set it down onto the table.  “Very nice.  Very nice.” 

“And three bundles of arrows, which I fletched myself.”  Kili pulled set them out.  Ulfarr smiled down at Kili.  “These exceed my expectations.”  He stepped closer, took Kili’s hand and slipped several coins into his palm.  “Work like this is always well rewarded.”

Kili looked down at his hand.  “I’m sorry, but this is too much.”  He backed up a step.  “You already paid me enough for the job.”

Ulfarr followed him until Kili found his back to the wall, the dark-skinned dwarf looking directly into his eyes.  _“Up to me to say enough.”_   He was standing so close now Kili could feel the heat radiating off of his body, smell the horse and sweat and musk.  He had no idea what to say so he lowered his lashes and looked down at his hand.  “In my country it is custom to give extra for craftsmanship exceptionally well done.”  He closed Kili’s hand inside of his.  “You undervalue yourself, Little Kili.”

Kili’s lips parted and he was about to speak when the bell at the doors sounded.  Ulfarr stepped back slowly, a smile on his face.  “I will see you again before I leave.”  Dis and Odne walked in as Ulfarr was gathering up his gear from the table.  “Ladies,” he bowed respectfully as he passed them on his way out the door.

They both stopped and leaned back to watch him through the window.  “What do you think?” asked Odne.

“Eastern countries,” Dis replied.  “They come up with the caravans.”

“My parents forbade me to speak with them when they came into the shop,” Odne commented.

“I can see why.”  They both broke out laughing. 

Kili walked out to greet them.  “Hello!”  He touched foreheads with his mother, nodded respectfully to Odne.  Dis kissed him lightly on the cheek.  “Working this afternoon?”

“Just finished,” he answered.  “I had a commission for a bow.”

“I thought that was your work,” she replied. 

“He was here to see you?” Odne asked with raised brow.

“Um, yes,” Kili shifted a little uncomfortably.  “He broke his bow on the road.  Do you know him?”  Odne gave a knowing smile.  “I know his kind.  They find their way this far west every few years.  Girl in every town and a string of broken hearts in their wake.”

“Doing well for an ordinary guard,” Dis commented.  “He’s probably working for one of the gem merchants.”  She petted Kili’s hair smooth.  “We are going to market.  Have you eaten?”

“I’m done here for the day but I promised Ori that I would go to the storytelling with him tonight.”  She smiled at him.  “All right.  I will see you for supper then.”

As they walked through the workshops to see Geirmund, Kili went to put his things away.  It wouldn’t hurt him to stop to eat and now he could start looking for the little Durin’s Day gifts they always exchanged.  He wanted to buy something special for Fili, in case he came back in time.  He pulled his pouch out of his tunic to tuck the new coins away, but when he opened his hand he realized that he was tightly clutching a heavy ring in his palm.  He stared at it.  Ulfarr must have slipped it into his hand when he folded his hand over Kili’s.  He swallowed hard and looked at it.  There were ornate runes inscribed all around it, he didn’t recognize them so they must have been of a different language.  But the stone was something else all together.  Creamy yellow and somewhat opaque, it was carved in the shape of a beetle.  He would ask Dis about it later. 

Tucking the ring into his pocket and the coins into his purse he caught up with them as they were walking out.  “I think I will go to market with you,” he offered.  “I want to look at the stalls.”

“And you’re hungry,” commented Dis. 

“Yeah, well, a little!”   

 

* * *

 

 

Fili and Thorin sat together in the darkness not far from their slowly burning fire.  Each morning they had found fresh tracks at the water and at night their ponies were restless, snuffing the wind and eyeing the trees.  Thorin taught him to make improvised spears from some of the poles they had cut for the smoking racks.  The lion was not giving up.  Maybe it was just too injured to hunt for itself or maybe the meat they had hanging was just too tempting, but if it attacked one of them alone it could be disastrous.  He was forcing his mind not to wander, not to think of home or the ones he had left behind.  He forced his eyes to search the moonless dark for a darker shadow, a flicker of movement, maybe a sound.  The ponies were not sleeping, ears swiveling back and forth as they stood awake and alert.

This animal was the perfect hunter with eyes that could see in the dim light and teeth that could pierce his skull or spine for a quick kill.  They had watched one hunt from a distance once, perched up on a hill at the edge of the trees where it could not see them.  Saw it gliding like a ghost down through the rocks to ambush an unwary deer.  It moved like its spine was a coiled spring, the big tail acting as a counter-balance as it charged.  The cat pulled the fleeing deer to it with its paws and bit through the back of its neck like it was the easiest thing in the world.  They turned around and went home to spend the rest of the day at the forge.

Now they sat pressing shoulders, listening for the smallest sound to tell them it was near.  Fili wondered what could be big enough to injure a lion.  Bear, certainly.  They only ever got lynx, fox and marten close to the settlement but the further one ranged the better chance of coming across a wolf, bear or lion.  He knew enough of these big predators to know that only a fool went looking for them.  Behind them one of the ponies stamped.

Fili felt Thorin reach slowly down for his spear and did the same, not moving abruptly or making noise.  The only sound in the night now was the ponies restless stirring but he knew to trust them in this.  If they were nervous than it was near.  Thorin saw it first, a tawny shadow moving through the grass in the starlight.  He passed Fili one of the torches they made in case it approached in the darkness.  As they set them alight Fili could hear a very strange, high-pitched whining noise the likes of which he had never heard before.  It set all his hairs on end.  He wanted to ask but he already knew.  The ponies started fighting their picket line in a panic and as they pulled loose and bolted he saw the big shadow surge forward.

Thorin reacted first, springing up and brandishing his torch with a roar.  Mahal have mercy, Fili thought, the damn thing was nearly as tall as he was and twice as heavy.  He ran up beside his uncle, shouting his challenge.  The big animal snarled at the fire, backing away from them and for a moment Fili thought that it really would retreat.  Instead it coiled it’s big, powerful body and rushed right back towards him with a snarl. 

Fili dropped the torch and grabbed onto the spear with both hands.  He tried to raise it fast enough it was coming at him so fast so fast he felt the impact there was muffled shouting and it was right up on top of him claws in his coat mouth on his head and he was shaking he was being shaken like a hare and there was a loud crack that made his ears ring and then he was falling backwards looking up into the moonless sky and Thorin was calling his name.

_“Fili?  Fili!”_

 

* * *

 

 

“I really shouldn’t be doing this.”

“If you wish to leave I will not stop you.  All the same, I am glad for your company.”

Kili looked at the door and waivered.  The party downstairs was still in full swing and he wouldn’t be missed just yet.  He turned towards the tall dwarf standing behind him.  “I guess I could stay for a little while.”

Ulfarr stepped around him and slowly walked him backwards.  “I was glad to see Little Kili tonight.”

“You were ?”  Kili tried to look anywhere but into those kohl-rimmed eyes.

“Such a rare jewel one does not ever expect to find.”  That deep voice was so close to him now.   Kili took another step back and stumbled against the bed, almost falling.  The tall dwarf slid an arm around the small of his back and eased him down onto the mattress.  Kili felt so awkward and juvenile where the dark-skinned warrior carried himself with such self-assurance.  Ulfarr leaned over to look at him.  “Does no one tell you these things?”

_“I have a brother who almost killed someone for touching me, but our uncle took him away and I don’t know when he’s coming back,”_ is what he wanted to say.Instead he just shook his head.

Ulfarr cupped Kili’s face in his palm and pulled him closer.  Kili could feel his breath on him, feel the heat radiating from him.  He did not pull away as the older dwarf leaned in and pressed his mouth to his.  Did not object as he was falling slowly backwards.  Lay looking at the ceiling as the other pulled his legs up onto the bed and pulled him close.

“What say you, Little Kili…?”  Those lips pressed down on his again…

 

Kili sat bolt upright in the near darkness of his own room.  He sat clutching his chest and breathing hard, looking around him to make sure he was alone.  _“What was that?”_ he whispered.  _“What was that?”_

Up until then all his dreams had been of Fili.  Fili striding home in the dawn.  Fili pressing foreheads with him.  Fili hidden away behind the falls…  He climbed out of his bed and into the other.  Pulling the blanket up over his shoulder he scrunched in on the pillow.  _“I miss you.”_

 

* * *

 

 

Fili sat in the dawn grimacing as his uncle carefully cleaned the wounds on his scalp and face.  He had four good puncture wounds and several nasty lacerations to brag about and the lion lay dead in the grass, its neck severed where Thorin had brought his sword down upon it.  “After I clean you up I’m going to skin the pelt and cut some of the meat.  When you’re good to travel we’ll pack up and head back home.”

“It’s not the female is it?” Fili asked.  He didn’t know why the thought bothered him so.

“No,” Thorin answered.  “It’s male, very thin.  That injury must have made it too hard for him to hunt.”

“That’s a good pelt.  What are you going to do with it?”  His back and neck were stiff and sore.

“I think we should use the fur to trim out your coat.”

“Mine?”  Fili was surprised.  “But it’s your kill.”

“You stood up to its charge,” Thorin countered, smearing some salve on his face.  “I honestly thought it had broken your neck.”

“Nah, just feels that way.”  He turned his head experimentally.  “I should find the ponies.”

“You will have a fine new set of scars,” Thorin stepped back and surveyed his work.  He had had to stitch two of the cuts closed.

“Mum will be thrilled!” Fili tried not to smile, it hurt too much.

“Oh, Mahal, don’t remind me.”  Thorin wasn’t sure who was more dangerous, the lion or Dis.  “You know how to execute my will if I die?”

“She wouldn’t,” countered Fili as he stood up slowly. 

“She put a pitchfork through my foot once.  I still have the scar.”

“Do I even want to know what made her that angry?”

Thorin packed away the healer’s kit and stowed it with their gear.  _“No.”_

 

* * *

 

 

_“Kili, stop looking!”_

Kili turned back towards the house where his mother was pulling a rack of small pies from her oven.  “But… it’s today!”

“Yes, I know it’s today,” she laughed.  Durin’s Day was always exciting for the boys.  A holiday the entire settlement shared, no school or work.  They went to temple at daybreak and that evening there would be a serious feast accompanied by music and storytelling.  Dis was trying to get enough food ready and had been baking for several days, much to her son’s delight.  Now he was preoccupied with trying to spot the sun and the moon in the sky together.  “I’m going to need more kindling and you need a bath.”

He sighed and turned to go back inside.

_“MUM!”_

Dis set the tray she was holding aside at the urgent sound of her son’s call.  _“Kili?  What’s wrong?”_    She wiped her hands on her apron and stepped outside to see her boy sprinting across the grass towards the tree line.  “Kili, where are you…?”  Then she caught sight of the two dwarves leading ponies down from the trailhead.  _“Blessed is this day,”_ she whispered.

 

Fili braced himself for the impact of his brother’s enthusiastic welcome but not for the tears that came with it.  “Hey,” he whispered into Kili’s hair.  “It’s okay now, I’m here.”  Kili pressed foreheads with him.  “You’ve been gone for so long!”  Fili hugged him, rubbing his back and looking up at Thorin who was smiling down at them.  “Uncle’s been gone too, Kee.”

Kili pulled back and sniffled like a dwarfling.  “I’m sorry Uncle.”  Thorin laughed and pulled him in for a hug.  “I am glad to see you as well.”

Kili led the ponies as Fili related the story of their journey, the hunting camp and the lions.  “Is that where it scratched you?” Kili asked, eyeing the still-healing cut on his face.  “Scratched me?  That’s where it had my head in its mouth!”  Kili dropped the lead rope and grabbed Fili’s head, his face a mask of upset and worry.  “Where?  It bit you where?!”

Fili carefully pulled his hair aside and showed him the puncture wounds on his scalp.  “They didn’t go past the bone,” he assured his brother.  “My head is too hard.”

“Your skull is too thick!  Oh Mahal, Fili!”  It was clear Kili was distraught over this. 

As they made their way towards the house Fili told him everywhere they had been, everything they had seen.  Dis met them partway, a happy smile on her face.  “You always did pick the perfect day to come home.”

“Really,” Thorin asked.  “And what day would that be?”

“It’s Durin’s Day!” Kili shouted, making Fili laugh.  “You came home on Feast Day!”

“That will be most welcome,” Thorin agreed.  “We have been long away from our home.”

“Well I have the boiler started in the bathing room if you want to go first,” she replied.  “We need to get all three of you scrubbed up.  The boys can go after you.”

“Fili, tell Mum about the lion!” Kili chimed in excitedly.

_“Lion?!”_

“You know a bath does sound good!”  Thorin turned to face his sister while backpedaling towards the house.  “I think I shall get right in there.”

“Mum!  A lion swallowed Fili’s head!  See?  You can see the marks here?”

_“What?!”_   Dis grabbed her son’s face.

“Going now!  Boys, see to the ponies!”  Thorin beat a quick retreat towards the relative safety of the house. 

“Oh, what in Mahal’s name were you two doing out there?  Thorin!” she yelled.  “I _will_ have a full accounting of this!”

They managed to get the ponies unloaded, groomed and turned out into their paddock to roll.  Fili gave the meat they had smoked to Dis, knowing that some of it would be going to families that had more mouths than they could feed.  They took the pelts to the tanning shed and spread them out.  Fili unrolled the lion pelt and showed it to Kili.  “Look at that,” Kili ran his hands over it.  “Were you scared?”

“Very,” Fili answered seriously.  “I really didn’t want to die up there, far from home.  The whole time I was up there I just wanted to come back.”

“But Thorin wouldn’t let you.”

“I wouldn’t have been okay if I had.  It would have been The Goose all over again.”

Kili just looked at him.  “I missed you.”

Fili leaned forward until their foreheads touched.  “I missed you, too.”

 

* * *

 

 

With Thorin bathed and the water reheated Fili sat on the bench and tried dutifully to scrub himself clean, as per his mother’s instructions.  Kili sat behind him, pulling the braids from his hair.  “I missed this.” 

Kili set his beads into a little clay dish so that they would not get lost.  “You missed me washing your hair?”

“Yes, and just having this time, you know.”  He tilted his chin up and hummed happily as Kili ran his nails through his beard.

Kili started in on his hair, which was frankly far overdue for a proper washing.  “I like your new ink.”  Fili leaned back into his touch.  “Mmm… thank you.”

By the time they made it into the soaking tub they had fallen back into their comfortable routine, Fili enjoying the feeling of water that did not seem to be just melted ice.  “So what happened while I was gone?”

“The same things that happen every summer,” Kili mused.  “Tuva and Boje had a son, I helped.  I helped Mum a lot, actually.  I sold a bow and Ori has a crush on Mister Dwalin…”  They chatted and relaxed and it was almost as if Fili had not been away at all and when they went down to the feast they walked shoulder-to-shoulder, they way they always had.  Their friends were glad to have Fili home, glad to see them together as they always had been.  He pressed foreheads with Dwalin and apologized for hitting him, bumped shoulders with Ori and Gimli and took his place next to Thorin at the table.  And if there were a few Alphas who looked disappointed at his return so be it.  If Kili hadn’t shown interest in anyone while Fili was away then he certainly wasn’t going to now and Fili found himself not troubled by that one bit.

As the night wore on they raised a bonfire and played music and sang, Bofur commanding the stage as the senior storyteller.  Children dozed with full bellies and couples paired-off for some story-making of their own.  Fili told the story of the lion while his friends inspected the holes in his head and the cuts on his face.  Dwalin and Gloin slapped his back for a job well done while Dis gave Thorin a look that said they were not done with that subject. 

Late in the evening when the ale sank in and they were all in a heap watching Bofur, Fili’s eyes drifted past the fire and were caught by another dwarf looking at him.  This was not someone he recognized, mayhaps one of the dwarves that came up the trade route.  He was big and had the look of a seasoned warrior about him.  He had dark skin and his hair was coiled rather than braided and his eyes were appraising upon Fili.  They looked at each other for a moment longer, then the dark stranger raised his tankard to him and nodded in acknowledgement before turning away to talk to Nori.

The exchange left an unsettled feeling in his gut.  But then he looked at Kili laying back against his shoulder with a happy smile on his face and he decided that it didn’t matter.

 

* * *

 

 

That night he lay in his bed for the first time in months, Kili nestled in on his shoulder.  _“I missed this,”_ he whispered.

_“I missed you,”_ Kili whispered back.

Fili was exhausted and would have dropped right off but his brother was very restless; he kept arranging the blankets and fixing Fili’s hair.  “Is everything okay, _Nadadel?”_ Kili wiggled around a bit more, getting himself wedged as far down under his brother’s shoulder as he could.  “It is now.”

“Did something happen while I was away?” Fili coaxed.  “Something you need to tell me?”

He could tell by the frown on Kili’s face that he was working through something in his head.  His brother closed his eyes and clenched his hand around a fistful of Fili’s sleepshirt.  “No, just Omega stuff.”  Fili had long since learned that _“Omega stuff”_ meant things that were only between Kili and his mother and the other Omegas.  Not that he thought about it, he had plenty to keep him busy, but it was an odd thing that there should be secrets they did not share in as they shared everything else.  And for the first time he wondered if Omegas had their own _Tusith_ to go through and what would happen when Kili went through his.  Maybe it was not for him to know until it happened.  Looking at his brother’s peaceful face he felt a surge of protectiveness.  _To watch over and keep you…_

 

* * *

 

 

Fili followed his uncle as they walked through the center of town.  There was a caravan leaving that morning and Thorin knew the Caravan Master.  Kili had begged off, saying there was something he and Dis had to attend to.  There were a long line of wagons loaded and many ponies lining the road.  While Thorin spoke to the Caravan Master and passed him some letters he needed delivered Fili made conversation with some of the dwarves he had met before. 

Again he saw the tall, dark dwarf standing next to what looked like a dwarf-sized horse, checking his saddle.  Besides a fine-looking set of swords he also carried a bow which was unmistakably Kili’s work.  “That’s a fine bow,” he commented.

The dwarf turned and looked at him with bright amber eyes.  “I thank you,” he answered with a small nod.  “It was made for me and a finer one I will not find from here to the East.”

“I know, my brother made it,” Fili bowed.  “Fili, at your service.”

“Ulfarr, at yours and your families,” the other returned.  “You are a very lucky dwarf.”

“Oh?” Fili got the uneasy feeling that the other dwarf was one up on him in the conversation.  “How so?”

“Your Little Kili, such a rare jewel,” Ulfarr answered.  “Should I travel all the long way home and back again I would not find another.”

Fili looked at the other dwarf with his easy, confident manner and cocksure way of looking back at him.  There was a voice in his head that warned that this dwarf was far more dangerous than he seemed.  There was also a voice that reminded him that he had no business starting a fight, not here in the middle of town and not over something so slight.  Still… “Well, you are right.  May the road rise up to greet you.”

“And may the Maker bless and keep you.”  Ulfarr swung up into his saddle and the caravan started moving.  Thorin came up and rested an easy hand on his shoulder and together they watched them go.

 

* * *

 

 

They were sitting in the small barn loft in the autumn afternoon talking where the adults could not hear them.  Not that they weren’t old enough to go anywhere they wanted and talk where adults couldn’t hear them, but this had been their secret lair since they were children.  At that moment they had a basket of bread and cheese and a jar of pickles pilfered from their mother’s pantry and Kili was making him tell again the story of the lion.  He had given him the pelt for Durin’s Day and Kili had agreed with Thorin that they should use it to trim out Fili’s coat so Dis was doing that now before the cold weather set in.

They lay next to each other in the loose hay, talking about everything and nothing.  From Thorin’s seemingly magical resistance to cold water to what it was like to see a babe birthed.  “I swear Kili, that water was so cold that I thought my stones would crawl right up ass and he just throws himself in like it’s nothing!”  Kili snorted.  “He’s lucky he never needed rescuing from the deep part, I don’t know if I could have done it...”

“…when I saw Tuva’s babe being born it was amazing Fee.  He was just there, after all that pain and struggle and Boje was crying too…”

“Maybe next summer we can all go up to the high meadow and bring back some elk.  I like the meat, it tastes like cloves, and the pelts are thick.”

“I had duties at Temple this summer but I got to sit and listen to Odne sing.  She’s really beautiful Fee.”  Kili paused and grew thoughtful.  “I wonder if I will ever be like that.”

“Beautiful?” Fili looked over at him.  “You are now.”

“No,” Kili frowned.  “I mean…” 

> _“Oh, I’m not bonded yet,” Kili answered before he remembered that Odne would know that.  He caught her teasing smile and laughed.  “We, well Fili, he’s my brother…”_
> 
> _“Oh,” she replied, looking innocent.  “One would not have known.”_

“I’m not sure I want to be.”

“Why not?”  Fili looked over at him with concern.  “Kili, what’s wrong?”

“Because I don’t want to give up my sword and my bow.”  That wasn’t quite right, but it was the best that he could manage.

“Who says you have to?”

“But what if,” Kili squirmed.  He hadn’t wanted to talk about this with Fili but now it was all coming out.  “What if the dwarf I bond to wants me to be more like that; more like Odne than what I am?”

Fili eyebrows knitted together.  “Then you shouldn’t bond to that dwarf.  The one who truly loves you will want you the way that you are.”

Kili’s thoughts turned back towards the conversation with the beautiful Omega.

> _“You will know when the time comes.”_

“Would you?”  There, he said it and once said it could not be taken back. 

“Would I…?”  Fili knew he was about to get himself into deep water but the look on his brother’s face wouldn’t let it rest.

“Want me the way that I am?”

“Yes, wait, no… Kili!”  The look of upset on Kili’s face was enough to say that he had blundered badly. 

_“Why?  Why wouldn’t you want me?”_

“Because I can’t,” he tried to explain.  “You don’t understand.”

 “Why can’t you?”  Kili demanded. 

“Kili, in ten years time dwarf lords from all over Middle Earth will send their sons to court you.  You could live anywhere, bond to anyone, your children could rule a kingdom.”  He wasn’t saying it right.  Those were Thorin’s words, not his.

“But that’s not what I want,” Kili countered.  “I want this life.  I want it for me and for my children.  I want them to grow up the way we did.”

“Kili, how do you even know what you want?”

“This was always good enough for me!  It was always good enough for us!”

“And that hasn’t changed.”  Fili was on his knees now.  He would do anything to make his brother happy again if he just knew how.

“Before you left you nearly killed a dwarf just for touching me!  Now you don’t want me at all.  Is that why Thorin took you away?  To put us apart?  To keep me unattached so he could send me off to live under the stone?”

“I had to go away because I was a danger to myself and others, and you know that!”  They were both yelling now.  “Kili, it’s just not right!”

“Fuck you!”  Kili shoved him hard and before Fili could right himself he was down the ladder and out the door. 

Fili lay back and looked at the sloping roof.  _“Why…?”_ A moment later he was out the door and into the yard.  “Kili, wait!”

“No!”  Kili picked up a pebble from the ground and flung it at him, striking him on the arm and marched out the gate.  “I’m not talking to you!”

“Oh, that’s real grown up!  Kili!”  At that moment Thorin walked in the gate.  “Fili?  What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry Uncle,” Fili hurried past him.  “I will explain later.”

Thorin walked into the house where Dis was sewing Fili’s coat.  “What is going on with the boys?” he asked.  “Kili just gave me the _rukh_ -face and threw rocks at his brother.  And don’t say that it’s a…”

“It’s an Omega thing.  You have to let them work it out Thorin.”  She had been with Kili on the morning he went to the temple and placed a ring in the alms bowl at the alter of Yavanna.  He wouldn’t say where it came from, only that he had made a decision about something.  “They have things to talk about.”

 

* * *

 

 

Fili followed Kili at a safe distance.  He knew exactly where he was going.  Kili marched straight to the falls, stripped off his clothing and slid into the grotto.  A few minutes later Fili pulled off his own clothing and carefully hid them in the undergrowth, gathering Kili’s up to put with them.  “Kili,” he called softly.  “I’m coming in.”

When he entered he expected to face more of Kili’s anger.  Instead, Kili had his back to him and his shoulders were shaking.  “Kee, I’m sorry.”

“No,” his brother’s voice was hoarse with regret.  “I’m the one who’s sorry.”

“Please,” Fili came quietly up behind him and placed a hand upon his shoulder.  “Can I explain?”  Kili didn’t answer so he continued.  “I know that you would be with me just to make me happy.  But it’s not right for me to ask you to do that.  Someday you will find the dwarf you want to be with.  It’s my job to protect and keep you until the time you choose.”

“But I did choose,” Kili’s voice was soft and sad.  “But the dwarf I wanted did not want me.”

“Kili, what happened while I was gone?”

Kili was silent for long moments.  Then he said, “I had the chance to find out what was important to me.  And I did.  And I made my choice.  But now I feel stupid.”

Fili gently turned him around.  “You are many things… stubborn, impulsive, very, very lovely, but never stupid.”

“But my choice…”

“Kili, there are so many things I will never be able to give you.  You could have any dwarf for the asking.”

“Are you refusing me?”

“No, but…” and there were no more words because Kili’s mouth was pressed over his and Kili was in his arms and he was warm to touch and sweet to taste and Fili knew that all his good intentions and stalwart resolutions to do the right thing were defeated by the will of a dwarf he would never be able to say no to.

And later when they came home together with damp hair and leaves stuck to their clothing Dis said nothing about it while Thorin looked reproving.  The boys went straight upstairs and they heard the door close and the sound of the beds being shoved together.  “And you have nothing to say to that?” Thorin asked.

“I heard Bofur is taking the chair at the Bell tonight,” she replied.  “Care to escort me?”

He stood up and pulled their cloaks from the wall.  “I see who is head of this household.”

“Good thing.  I want to get there early so we can get a good seat.”

 

 

\- FIN -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want more sexy-dangerous-dwarf stories hop over to Thorinsmut's neck of the woods for the Axe/Knife extras, especially "Ornir's Tale" at http://archiveofourown.org/works/709351/chapters/1575284.
> 
>  
> 
> Ûrzudel is Khuzdul for 'sun of all suns'  
> Bahzundush - Raven  
> Givashel - Treasure of all treasures  
> Nadadel - brother of (all) brothers  
> Sanâzyung - perfect (true/pure) love  
> Gimlelul (my brightest star)  
> Odne – Fire Eagle or Firebird (depending upon what gender Odne chooses to identify with)  
> Orgine – Of The Earth (loose translation)   
> Pormoor – Bold & Brave (old name)  
> Ulfarr – The Wolf Spear (loose translation)   
> Nottfax – Night Mane   
> The name given to Moria by the Dwarves is Khazad-dûm, which means Delving of the Dwarves.  
> The clove-brown gem Fili thinks of when he looks into Kili’s eyes is called a brown Axinite.  
> Ughreg – “to be drunk” (although in this respect I am using it as “the drunken time”.)  
> Tusith – the hunt that is young. I am loosely using it here to mean the hunt of youth or wilding hunt. A time for young Alphas to get away from everyone, blow off some steam and get their shit together. Sort of a rite of passage.  
> Rukh - orc


	5. "Of Bonding & Bedding Pt 1"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the story of Kili & Fili's formal courting, bonding and baby making that did not make it into Kidnapped!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Kili talks about the bad things that happened when he was taken away. May be a trigger for some readers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

****

** Kidnapped! Extras **

 

 

**_“Of Bonding & Bedding”_ **

****

**_Pt 1_ **

****

****

 

 

As Midsummer approached Fili noticed a significant change in Kili’s behavior.  He was worried and not without reason.  Since that terrible year that Kili had been taken away from them he had worried about a relapse back into the frightened, reclusive dwarf that had returned.  He seemed happy and much his own self, certainly healthy.  In fact, if anyone was now having anxiety it was Fili, still worried that he would not be able to take care of him as any good brother should, much less as any Alpha should.  So now that Kili was acting secretive and moody he worried enough to seek out the one dwarf that had been able to get him through that awful time.

The bell on Oin’s door chimed as Fili walked into the infirmary.  “Hello?”

“Fili!” a now-familiar voice called from the back room.  Hilgot dropped the stack of papers she had been organizing and walked out to greet him.  “What brings you here this day?”

Fili shifted a little uncomfortably.  He wasn’t really sure how to say what he was worried about.  “I, um… I’m not sure,” his brows furrowed. 

“Are you hurt?  You shoulder, it bothers you?”  Hilgot had become Oin’s primary assistant at the infirmary since her arrival at the settlement. 

“Well, no, it’s Kili.”

Hilgot motioned for him to sit.  “Tell me.”

Fili leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs.  “He’s just… different.  I don’t know how to say it.  He’s been moody and doesn’t let me out of his sight ever.  He wants my attention but when I give it to him he’s upset with me.  I thought you might have an idea. Because I don’t.”

Hilgot thought on that for a moment and then asked, “Where is he now?”

“At Temple with Mother.  They have duties at the Altar of Yavanna.”

“Has he been ill?  Injured?”

Fili shook his head.  “No, but he’s complaining that his back hurts.  He makes me rub it all the time.”

She pursed her lips.  “Has Kili presented yet?”

Fili made an O-shape with his mouth and sat up.  “No, but we had been expecting him to before this.  We were waiting to start our formal courting until he presented.”

“His body was too thin to present,” she answered.  “Maybe now, yah?”

Fili hadn’t considered that at all.  “Oh, maybe.  Well, what do I do to make it easier?”

Hilgot rose from her chair with a smile and patted his shoulder.  “Good Alpha you are.  Give him this,” she pulled a jar down from the shelf behind the desk.  “Make tea for him and drink breakfast, nooning, supper.  It will help his back and mayhaps some other things as well.”

“Thank you,” Fili took the pouch and dropped some coin into the till.  “Will you come see us soon?”

“Ya soon, maybe today if no one gets hurt,” she smiled at him.  “Go now, don’t keep him waiting.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Fili returned home to find Kili firmly ensconced in the small barnloft that had served as their hideout since they were children.  “Hey you,” he came up over the ladder.  “How are you feeling?”  Kili responded with a non-committal grumble and wrapped his arms around his chest.  Fili crawled up next to him.  “I saw Hilgot today?”

“Oh?”  That managed to stir his others curiosity.

“Yes,” Fili nestled down into the hay with him.  “She sent some tea.  She said it would help your back.”

Kili cuddled in on his shoulder, looking grumpy and uncomfortable.  “I don’t need tea.”

“Well what do you need _Bahzundush?”_   Fili wrapped his arms around him.  He was trying to be patient but he just had no idea what to do.

“I don’t know,” Kili wriggled around uncomfortably.  “Rub my back?”

“Yes, I will rub your back.”  Fili worked the muscles low on his back and felt him relax into his embrace.  “Midsummer Feast is only a short ways away.” 

That had been the wrong thing to say.  He felt Kili stiffen against him.  “I know.”

“Are you not looking forward to it,” Fili asked him.  “You always enjoyed it so.”  Kili rolled away from him and did not answer.  _“Nadadel,_ is something wrong?  How can I fix it if you won’t tell me what it is?”

Kili sighed.  “It’s nothing.”

Fili was at an absolute loss.  “It’s not nothing.  It’s something and it’s making you unhappy.  Whatever it is, please share with me?”

Kili rolled back into his arms and looked up at him with those eyes that looked like dark jewels.  “Are you going to give Thorin your sword at the feast?”  Now they were getting somewhere.  Fili had made a fine sword and scabbard to present to the head of his Omega’s family to demonstrate himself worthy of courtship.  It was really more of a formality, there was no question as to Kili’s choice and they had just been waiting for him to present.  But if Kili did not feel ready he would put it off for another season.  “I was hoping to, but I will wait for you if you are not ready.”  He had been concerned.  Before they had been less than chaste, Kili seeing no reason to wait when their bonding had been all but formalized.  It had been Fili’s reserved nature and sense of propriety that held them back, contenting themselves with kisses and touches and mutual pleasures.  They learned each other’s bodies in slow hours, hidden away in the grotto or in the darkness of their beds.  Fili took great pride in being able to satisfy his Omega, to have his One stretched out and purring like a cat.  Since Kili’s return they had done little.  At first Kili was too fragile and after that he became reserved and unresponsive to Fili’s touches.

His thoughts were interrupted as Kili buried his face in his tunic and mumbled something he didn’t quite hear.  _“Sanâzyung?”_ he asked, but Kili only nestled in further and closed his eyes.  Fili sighed and kissed the top of his head.  “I love you.”

_“Love too…”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Hilgot arrived later that afternoon with a basket of ripe birries and a heart full of good cheer.  She and Dis had become friends since her arrival at the settlement.  They had a lot in common, both having grown up in unconventional lives above ground.  Dis slid an arm around her shoulders and ushered her in.  “It is good to see you.  Fili said you might join us tonight.”

“Aye, come to see me about little Omega,” Hilgot set her basket down on the table.  “Are they here?”

“Out in the stable I think.”  Dis picked up a palm full of berries and smelled it, inhaling the fragrant scent of fresh fruit.

“Fili thinks maybe his brother is presenting, yah?”  Hilgot knew the first time an Omega went through a fertility cycle could be rough.

“I think so too,” Dis replied.  “But Kili’s being so secretive.  I’m not sure what exactly is bothering him.”

Hilgot was quiet for a moment, considering.  “Maybe I talk to him later.”

“Thank you,” Dis was relieved.  The past two years had been hard on everyone, but especially on her mother’s heart.  “Let’s cook these up with some butter and honey.  We can bake them up in a tart.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

They were a happy bunch at supper that night, laughing and telling stories.  Hilgot had gown up in a rural farm area and her life had been very different than theirs.  In turn, she had only heard stories of the Great Dwarven Kingdoms, but Ered Luin was the closest she had ever come to living underground.  They ate rabbit stew and warm bread and berry tart and traded news and talked about the coming winter.  The summer was good and the dwarves would lay in foodstock enough to last and Thorin talked about taking the boys hunting for winter game.  Finally, Hilgot asked Kili to sit outside and speak with her.

“I sent some tea home with your pretty Alpha,” she told him as they sat together under the tree. 

“It’s nasty,” he replied.  His fingers gripped her cuff lightly, a habit he had yet to lose.

“You might be presenting, little raven.”  She gave him a little while to answer and then spoke again.  “Are you worried?”

“I’m afraid.”  He looked out over the meadow.  “If I present he’ll want to bond with me.”

_“You have to tell him, Kili.”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Let’s go swimming.”

“You want to go swimming?”

“I want to go swimming.’

“I’ll tell Mum.”  Fili walked downstairs and found his mother in the sitting room studying a stack of papers.  “Kili wants to go swimming.”

She looked up at him and smiled.  “I don’t see why not.  Make sure you take your weapons and be home before supper.”

“Thank you,” he pressed his forehead to hers.  She didn’t need to tell him to be careful.  Since the attack they had created a special system of scouts that would alert the settlement if strangers were spotted off the trade road.  Young dwarves still roamed the woods and meadows around the settlement but they exercised much more caution than they had before. 

He found Kili waiting for him with their swords and his bow.  It had been hard to walk down that road.  Fili would tense up as he walked, looking off into the trees and expecting someone to be there.  Eventually they quit using the path and just cut straight through the trees that they knew so well.  The waster hadn’t gotten really cold yet and it felt good on their skin.  For Kili it was especially soothing; he felt entirely uncomfortable all of the time.  They splashed around happily for awhile and then slipped beneath the falls.  The grotto was cool, shady and the falls came down in a silvery curtain. 

Fili drew his other into his arms.  “Have you decided about Midsummer?” 

Kili leaned his head back onto his shoulder and closed his eyes.  “It’s complicated.”  Fili ran his hands over the long arms he admired so much.  “Tell me.” 

He could hear Kili swallow.  “When you went on your _Tusith_ you said you wanted me.”

“I did.  I still do.”

_“Even if I am not the same?”_

“Even if.”

Kili lay back against him and Fili could feel his shoulders tighten.  “But I’m not.  I’m not the same.”

Fili pressed his head against Kili’s and held him.  “None of us are, _Bahzundush.”_

“Hilgot says I have to tell you.  She says I have to tell you because it’s between us now.”

“What is?”  Fili was afraid to breath.  What had Kili been keeping to himself for the past year that he couldn’t share with him?

Kili was silent for a long, long time, only the sound of the falls marking the passing.  Then he folded his hands together in his lap and looked at them.  “We decided that we would wait, that we would never be with anyone else.”  Fili closed his eyes and buried his face in his other’s neck, afraid to say anything.  “But what if that wasn’t true anymore?  Would you still want me?”

Fili took a deep breath and carefully turned Kili around in his arms until he was pressed snug to his chest.  He placed Kili’s palm over the scar on his chest.  _“I would.”_

Kili thought about that for awhile.  “I didn’t want to.”

“I know, and I’m not angry at you for the things he did.”

“I tried to run away, I kept trying but I couldn’t get past the gate.  And he put a knife to my face and said he’d blind me and give me to his men.”  Fili stroked his hair, murmuring words of comfort to him.  _“I’m sorry.  It’s okay for you to tell me.  I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”_

“I was so afraid of him, but I was afraid of the rest of them more.”  _Safest with the most dangerous dwarf he knew._  “I was always afraid he might come to my room at night when I was alone.”

“Did he?”  Fili held him tightly.

“No, he was waiting for me to present.  But he would touch me, in front of the others.  He would show them that he could and no one else, show them how obedient I was.”  The words started to gush out now.  “When I first got there they pulled me off the wagon, forced me to the ground and pulled my clothing off to look at me.  There were dwarves there, they knew what I was and no one stopped him, Fili!  _I was so afraid!”_   He sobbed brokenly into his One’s chest.

Fili held him and stroked him and kissed away his tears and in his blood his anger boiled.  “All of those dwarves are dead now, Kili.  All of those men are dead now.  Thorin cut them down and left them for the crows to eat.  They will never be given back to the stone or burned or buried and when they arrive at the Halls of the Maker Mahal will turn them away.”  This was the silent enemy he had to face, the one that had been lurking since Kili’s return.  “You were stronger than they were, Kili.  I saw you face him without flinching.  You were braver than all of them.”

They stayed like that for a long while; touching, kissing, not speaking.  Everything they needed to say had been said.  _I am not the same as I was.  I know, but you are still everything to me._   They stayed until Kili started to shiver and Fili decided it was time to go.  “Mum will have supper waiting for us when we get home.”  They walked home hand-in-hand and pressed shoulders at the table then excused themselves to go upstairs where they lay entwined in the darkness, whispering to each other in quiet voices. 

_“I need you beside me Kili.  How can I go through this life when all that I want is you?”_

_“Show me.  Show me how much you want me.”_

And so Fili spent the rest of that night locked together with his One, kissing him, touching him, claiming him all over again and Kili stretched out beneath him and purred contentedly in the only warmth he had ever truly desired.

 

 

 

-          TBC –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ûrzudel - 'sun of all suns'

Bahzundush - Raven

Givashel - Treasure of all treasures  
Nadadel - brother of (all) brothers

Sanâzyung - perfect (true/pure) love

Tusith – a very lose translation of “the hunt that is young” to mean an Alpha rite of passage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I knew at some point the boys would have to discuss this between them, but I also knew they were strong enough to get through it.
> 
> I am down sick so my apologies for the short chapter. 
> 
>  
> 
> As always, your comments are most welcome - either in this forum or in Tumblr.  
> Thanks for reading!


	6. "Of Bonding & Bedding Pt 2"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kili & Fili learn how to make fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well the previous chapters have been far too chaste. I thought the boys needed a break. More tales of what goes on inside the grotto under the falls.

 

 

 

 

**_“Of Bonding & Bedding”_ **

****

**_Pt 2_ **

****

****

 

 

“It’s Midsummer’s Eve,” Kili whispered.

“It is,” Fili agreed, looking at him suspiciously. 

Kili pressed his body up against him and nuzzled under his neck.  “It’s hot,” he murmured, nipping along his jaw.

_“Yes, it is.”_   It was hot and the little nipping kisses Kili was lavishing down his throat weren’t doing anything to help his morning erection.  He wouldn’t even be able to walk to the privy in this state.  And there was something else.  “Have you been downstairs yet?”

“No, why?” 

Fili buried his face into his hair.  “You smell like… baking spices.”

_“Mmmmmm….”_ Kili moaned indecently. _“You smell so good!”_   That was all it took for Fili to wrestle him over and press his mouth down over his others.  He hadn’t realized how much he had missed this.  Kili had always been the more forward of the two of them, the more adventuresome.  He pressed his lips on Kili’s neck.  _“My Sanâzyung,”_ he whispered. _“I want you so much.”_

_“Then stop being so virtuous and take me,”_ Kili panted under him. 

Fili started working his way down, leaving open mouthed kisses along his chest and belly.  “Tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“At the Fest.  I’m going to give Thorin my sword tonight.”  He adored the way Kili gasped as he swallowed him down.  _“Fili!”_

Fili worked him over enthusiastically, running the tip of his tongue from under his head down the underside and back up again.  Kili’s feet scrabbled against the sheets as firm hands held him down to the bed.  He slid his mouth off with a flick of his tongue to the slit.  “Tonight I will formally request to bond with my beautiful, perfect,” he punctuated his words with kisses.  “My most precious Omega and I will be the most envied Alpha in all of Ered Luin.”  Kili squirmed and panted underneath his hands wantonly and Fili had to remain strong not to just climb up and take him right there.

“Oh, oh, Fili!”  Fili climbed up and silenced his cries with a deep kiss, sliding their erections together and gripping them with a firm hand.  “And when we are bonded I will bring you to this bed and lay you out and thrust into you until you say enough and then I will take you more because you are the most desirable thing I have ever known in my life.”  He striped their cocks together, both of them swollen and leaking.  “You do this to me every time, _Sanâzyung!”_

Kili arched up into him and cried out, his orgasm painting his chest and stomach.  Fili leaned back and stroked himself to completion, his orgasm following his One’s.  They crashed down together on the bed, hot, sticky and gloriously sated.  “We’re going to need a bath.”

“We could just go swimming.”

“Again?”

“It’s nice in this heat.”  The cool water and room to float gave Kili some measure of relief from the hormones that were flooding his system. 

“Okay,” Fili peeled them apart and went for the wash basin.  He sat on the edge of the bed and Kili wriggled and signed contentedly as he was cleaned.  “We should check with Mum in case she needs help with anything.”

They made their way downstairs relaxed and happy.  They found their mother kneading dough for bread on the table.  “You two slept late.”

Fili at least had the decency to blush while Kili grabbed a plate of scones and the butter dish off the sideboard.  “We’re going swimming!”

“Again?”  Dis tried to act surprised. 

“It’s hot,” Kili replied.

“Just make sure all the animals have water and that you’re home in time for the start of tonight’s feast,” she reminded them.  They gave her a kiss on each cheek and ran out the door. 

Kili fairly pranced ahead of his bother, laughing as they made their way through the trees.  To Fili he was the most beautiful dwarf ever born and he was all his.  They stripped down and splashed into the water, becoming dwarrows again.  They leapt and played and shouted and the sound of their laughter filled the forest with joy.  Fili stood up in the hip-deep water and paraded in front of his very appreciative Omega, showing off his broad form, muscles and hard-won ink.  Kili floated serenely, admiring his beautiful, golden mate.  “When do you think,” Fili leaned over to kiss him.  “Thorin will allow us to hold our ceremony?”

Kili reached out and grasped him, wringing a gasp from his Alpha.  “Soon,” he asserted.  “He can’t make us wait any longer than we already have, _Ûrzudel.”_  

Fili sank down and pulled his sparkling Omega into his arms and kissed him deeply.  “That,” he signed.  “Has been hard.”

“You are hard,” Kili wrapped his legs around his other’s waist.  Fili floated them backwards until they passed under the falls and into the grotto.  “You make me hard.”  He lathed kisses up and down his other’s throat, enjoying the moans that only he could wring from him, the way he felt in his arms, the feel of their skin touching. 

He reached down to cup Kili’s backside, letting his fingertips brush over that forbidden area behind his stones.  Kili dropped his head forward, burying his face in Fili’s neck.  _“Please?”_

“No.”

Kili ground up against him, trying to climb up his torso.  “Fili I need you!”

_“Givashel,_ that is just you presenting.  We will get there soon enough.”  If truth be known it was only Fili’s sense of will that kept him from letting Kili climb up and do anything he wanted.  But he was determined.  They had waited this long, but it was getting very difficult to do so.

“It’s not!” Kili insisted, mouthing his throat heatedly, causing his other to lay back against the stone and squeeze his ass with firm hands.  “I want you to touch me.”

“I am touching you,” Fili panted, grinding their erections together. 

Kili licked at his lips, hands braced on his Alpha’s broad shoulders.  “Touch me there.” 

“Kili, it is forbidden!”  That was the last taboo, the bridge they had not crossed.  “We are not yet bonded and besides, you are fertile.”

“Half the dwarves in this settlement go to their bondings already proven,” Kili asserted. 

_“Kili…”_

_“Please, Ûrzudel, my Golden Sun, my Alpha, mine only mine…”_

That was just more than Fili could take.  He flipped his feverish Omega over against the rock and slid his hand up between his legs.  “Just this… no more.”

“Oh, yes, please!”  Kili lay back and wrapped his legs around his Alpha’s waist, trying to get some leverage against him.

“Just touching,” Fili repeated, maybe as much to himself as to his eager One.  He allowed his fingertips to trace around the opening, reveling in this new experience.  Kili let his head drop back and closed his eyes, his skin flushed and hair wild and it seemed that Fili had never seen him look more beautiful.  Fili pressed one leg up and over his shoulder, giving him more access, and ground his erection against his other’s thigh as he slowly dipped the tips of his fingers in and out.  “Like this?”

Kili’s eyes were dark, glittering jewels beneath his lashes, his lips open.  “Yes, like that, Fili please!”

Fili slipped two fingers all the way into that hot wetness and was rewarded by a moan from his other that nearly had him spending then and there.  He reached up his free hand and splayed it on the other’s chest, Kili stroking his arm with one hand and stroking himself with the other.  Fili couldn’t look away from his beautiful One as he gently explored, pleased at every gasp and breathy moan he drew forth.  For Kili it was like finally reaching an itch that he could not scratch.  He had no choice but to lay back and let his body arch into it.  _“So good, Fili, yes, oh… like that, please…”_

As that hot wetness clamped down on him he wondered, not for the first time, what it would feel like to slip his cock in and he knew Kili would let him and wanted him to do it.  He closed his eyes, grabbed Kili’s free hand and brought it up to kiss.  “Oh, my _Sanâzyung,_ I love you so much!”  Kili was writhing to his touch.  “Love too, _Ûrzudel…”_

Fili could tell his One was close.  “Come for me!  Let me see you!”  He started pumping his fingers in and out, drawing a startled, wide-eyed gasp from his other.  Kili’s legs scrambled for purchase against him and soon Kili’s cock pulsed in his hand, striping his seed up his belly.  He waited until the clenched heat around his fingers relaxed before sliding out then took his sorely aching and leaking cock in hand to finish.  Only a few quick strokes and his seed joined his other’s.  Fili’s knees went out from under him and he pulled Kili to him as he sank down into the water. 

They floated for long, silent moments, something within him purring happily as his One nestled in on his chest.  “My One,” he whispered.  “Mine.”  Kili mumbled something sleepily against his skin.  He would have stayed there happily for the rest of the day, hidden behind the falls, making love to his beautiful Omega, but duty called and ever Fili heeded it.

“Little Raven, we need to go back.”  Kili squirmed in his arms.  “No we don’t.”

“Yes we do.  There is still a lot of work to do before tonight.”  Kili scrunched his face up.  He didn’t want to go back.  He wanted to lay here in the cool water and make love and sleep and stay with his perfect, golden Alpha.  “Besides, we should go back for luncheon.”

“Mmmmm…..”  Fili smiled, knowing Kili would cave in over the offer of food.  “So’kay.”

The walked back slowly, hair damp, leaves stuck to their clothing, stopping every so often to kiss under a tree or just hold onto each other.  Kili was glowing and radiant and happy, much more contented than he had been all week.  Fili was feeling rather proud of himself, as if he had just discovered how to make fire.  They planned to eat luncheon and then help move tables, benches and chairs down to the meadow to start setting things up for that night’s bonfire.  There would be music and stories and nervous young dwarves would be approaching their beloved’s families with gifts in hopes of a summer courting and a harvest bonding.

When the boys returned to the house, relaxed and smirking at each other, they were stopped dead in their tracks by Thorin and Dis waiting for them in the common room.  “Fili, Kili,” Thorin addressed them.

“Uncle?”

“Mum?”

“Fili, I would have a word with you,” Thorin rose from his chair.  “Alone.”

The boys looked at each other nervously.  “Um, okay.”

“Kili,” Dis turned and walked towards her room.  “If you will come with me please.”

They didn’t know what they had done, but whatever this was it wasn’t good…

 

 

-fin-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ûrzudel - 'sun of all suns'

Bahzundush - Raven

Givashel - Treasure of all treasures  
Nadadel - brother of (all) brothers

Sanâzyung - perfect (true/pure) love

Tusith – a very lose translation of “the hunt that is young” to mean an Alpha rite of passage.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! As always, comments and PMs are meat and bread to a writer. All opinions welcome.
> 
> The wedding and baby-making coming soon!


	7. "Of Bonding & Bedding Pt 3"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Fili & Kili - Betrothal, pre-wedding jitters and their bonding ceremony! (Some smut!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I have tortured these two so much that I finally had to give them their happy ending. A little fun, a little dwarven culture and some hot, smutly goodness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

****

** Kidnapped! Extras **

 

 

**_“Of Bonding & Bedding”_ **

****

**_Pt 3_ **

****

****

Midsummer’s Eve and the whole settlement was turned out for a late evening bonfire and celebration.  On the morrow there would be temple observances other formalities regarding the change of the seasons, but for tonight it was theirs to celebrate.  Tables of food and kegs of ale had been brought out and everyone who could make music did, singers and storytellers taking rounds at every encampment as families gathered together in the late evening light.  Everywhere was laughter and the dwarves were happy and relaxed and here and there were men and women, guests from the surrounding farms and a few merchants having made their way up the trade road in the spring.

And at many family group young dwarves stood nervously in front of elders, gifts in hand, hoping for permission for a summer courtship.  The Durin camp was no exception.  Fili, Son of Dis, Daughter of Thrain, Son of Thror, stood upright, dressed in his best clothing, facing his uncle, mother and cousins, gifts-in-hand, his intended dancing worriedly about behind them.  He tried not to look nervous as his uncle, his King, gave him one of those long looks that could melt your bowels if you stood up in it long enough, reclining back in his chair with his arms relaxed, face an unreadable mask.

Finally he deigned to speak.  “Fili, Son of Dis, you wish to address the table?”

“I do.”

Thorin waived his hand for him to continue.

“I come to you seeking permission to court Kili, Son of Dis, of the House of Durin.”  He fought to keep his eyes off of the Omega who was now bouncing up and down behind the group.

“And have you brought gifts?”

“I have.”  At Thorin’s signal Fili stepped forward and placed his gifts upon the table.  “A sword and scabbard to prove my craft and a bag of gold to prove my worth to both defend and support him.”

Thorin leaned forward, took the sword and pulled it from the scabbard with a critical eye, inspecting the make, balance and design.  They all knew that it had been crafted under the strict supervision of Gloin so that there could be no fault found in it, but still Thorin was making his nephew wait.  The scabbard, too, was of superior make under the tutelage of Dis, thick elk-hide leather tooled and braided.  Behind him the Sons of Fundin and the Son of Groin noted it’s worthiness.  Thorin set them back down without comment and picked up the bag of gold, weighing it in his hand.  It did not matter that he knew exactly how much was in it down to the coin, the perverse part of him deep inside was enjoying watching his nephew sweat. 

Ignoring his sister’s sideways look he continued.  “And you think you can provide for him and his children, protect him in this world and honor him?”

Fili took a deep breath and stood proud.  “I have fulfilled my apprenticeships, taken my _tusith_ , done battle for him and killed for him.”  By this time they had drawn a small crowd of onlookers, among them the Sons of Ri, Hilgot and Oin, and Geirmund and Odne. 

“And does he…”  Thorin’s question was interrupted as Kili clambered up and over the table in his eagerness to reach his Alpha’s side.  _“Yes, I do!”_

There was a burst of laughter from the crowd.  Thorin gave his unrepentant younger nephew a look before speaking again.  “As I see the two of you are of like mind…”

 _“We are!”_ Kili chirped impatiently.

Thorin waited for the laughter to die down and a blushing Fili to get his wiggling Omega under control.  They stood hand-in-hand, waiting for him to finish.

“As I see the two of you are of like mind and you have brought the proper gifts and demonstrated yourself worthy of the task ahead…”  What Thorin did not say was “as long as no one will stand to challenge your right…” because Fili’s right to do this thing was proven and recognized by their community.  There was none who could say that he had not gone already to every length to keep and protect his Omega, none who could find him in any way lacking.  “Then I see no reason why we should not accept your suit.”

Fili suddenly found himself with an armful of happy Omega as the crowd that had gathered around to watch cheered.  It had been a long time coming along a path filled with tears, frustration and blood.  Kili had known for a long time that he would never truly be happy with another, for Fili there was absolutely no question.  He felt hands on his back and shoulders as well-wishers crowded about them.  Pulling back he held Kili’s face in his hands.  “Oh, _Givashel,”_ he breathed.  “I love you so much.”  Gently he wiped away the tears he found there.

“Normally,” Thorin continued, interrupting their reverie.  Kili and Fili turned back to face him together.  “I would call for a full and formal courtship.”  He ignored the dagger-like glare from his sister.  A full and formal courtship meant living apart until bonding.  It meant chaperoned meetings and no physical contact.  It could also mean a far-off date for the ceremony and Thorin was looking far too much like he was enjoying their discomfort.  “However, given the circumstances I think that would be a cause for too much distress.  So, I will leave it to _your mother_ as to your appropriate behavior and remind you that you still have all of your normal duties and obligations to attend to.”

Kili threw himself into his Alpha’s arms, his tears now flowing freely.  “It’s all right,” Fili petted his hair.  “It’s all right.”

Dis looked over at her brother.  “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

“Oh, I really did,” Thorin answered, looking at his new sword.

Gradually all the newly permissioned couples filtered away into the darkness.  Courting officially started on the day of the Summer Fest.  For tonight they were free to be together and celebrate, elders turning a blind-eye, which would account for so many spring birthings.  Kili and Fili lay in the long grass under the starlight, trading wet, sloppy kisses and whispering devotions. 

_“I love you I adore you I need you so much…”_

_“I cannot ever again be without you please stay by my side always…”_

After a while words faded into kisses and kisses faded into a sense of peace and contentment and they lay holding each other as sparks from the bonfire rose into the night sky as so many fireflies and they were happy.

 

* * *

 

 

“Kili, I swear, he’s doing this on purpose!”  Fili lay back on their bed, his hair wet from their bath and by Mahal he was _tired!_   His back and shoulders ached in a way that only a full day at the forge could bring and his training with Dwalin had leant him an entirely new set of bruises.  “He’s trying to kill me before we get to the harvest.”

Kili climbed onto the bed beside him and rolled his unresisting body over.  “He’s just trying to keep us from having sex, _Ûrzudel.”_   He reached over to the bedside table for a small bottle of oil and warmed some of it on his palm.

“He’s a cruel bastard,” Fili mumbled into the pillow as strong hands attacked the knots in his back.  “He’s deliberately working me into the ground.  He is sitting somewhere with Dwalin right now, laughing.  I just know it!”

Kili flipped him back over, rearranging the pliant body beneath him.  “Of course he is.”  He straddled his other and gently rubbed oil into the sore chest muscles.

Fili looked up at him through heavily-lidded eyes.  “You’re so beautiful.”  Kili hummed happily above him.  “Thank you for doing this.”

“Well,” Kili wiggled on top of him.  “Since you’re too tired to do anything…”

Fili reached up and cupped his backside.  “I think I could be coaxed.”

“Oh?”  Kili leaned down into a long and lazy kiss.  “Mmmmm…..  I like the sound of that.  Fili…  Fili…?”  He looked down at his beautiful, golden One, now sleeping relaxed and contented beneath him.  _“Oh, nadad.  I can’t wait until our bonding day.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

Fili sat behind Kili as he quietly worked at the small weaving board in front of him, watching slender fingers weave colored yarns in and out in an intricate pattern that Kili had been practicing for most of his adult life.  He was weaving their bonding cloth, the ceremonial cloth that would be used to bind their hands together during their ceremony at the temple.  Kili had taken him down to the farmlands in search of sorrel and woad, to the forest to harvest several different kinds of berries and sweetbark, and into the meadows to search for clover.  He had spent days brewing up foul-smelling dyes in large pots outside away from the house, staining their hands different colors as they strained each one and then boiled yards and yards of wool yarn Dis had bought for them.  Now he patiently wove Durin blue with his own dark green and Fili’s gold, wrapping them around other colors to make a long, thin binding cloth with their names in the pattern.

Part of the reason for a season-long courtship was to make time for these things.  The fact that they did them together symbolized that they were serious about their union.  It was also a time for dwarves who were not already coupled to learn more about each other, to make that final decision, yes or no.  For Fili and Kili that decision had been made long ago behind a curtain of silvery falling water and affirmed again years later when they fought enemies seen and unseen for the right to be together.  Now they sat together in the quiet of the evening firm in the knowledge that this was right and it was their right to be together.  Fili slid his arms tighter around his One and closed his eyes with a sigh.  He did not need to look to see the smile of contentment on Kili’s face.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Kili, stop fidgeting.”

“I can’t help it.”

“You both need to look nice today.  This is important.”  Dis smoothed out her son’s wild hair and stepped back to look at them.  “Very handsome, both of you.”

“Thanks Mum!”  They both leaned forward to kiss her and then darted out to meet their uncle in the yard.  “Any news?”

“The first ravens have arrived,” Thorin strode up the walk.  “Several of the delegations are on their way up the road now.  They should be here soon.”

“Get inside and get dressed,” Dis waved him through the door.  She insisted everyone be in good clothing to greet the delegations coming in from the other kingdoms.  Just one more reason they had needed to wait.  Exiles or not, this was a royal wedding and the other kingdoms would be represented.

Fili looked over at his mate and exhaled.  “I’m started to feel crowded and they’re not even here yet.”

Kili pressed foreheads and wound his arms around him.  “Just a few more days now and all this will be over with.”

 _“It’s not too late you know,”_ Fili whispered. _“All the kingdoms will be here.  You could still change your mind, rule by the side of a powerful Alpha with an army to command and a treasury full of gold, your children wanting for nothing.”_

 _“And there is still time for you to go to our bonding with a black eye,”_ Kili replied.

Fili cupped his beloved’s face in his hands. _“I want everything for you, Givashel.”_

 _“My Sanâzyung,”_ Kili kissed him tenderly. _“I have everything I have ever wanted.”_

Thorin joined them outside.  “We are just waiting on your mother now.  Then we can go collect the others and wait in town until they arrive.”  He looked proudly upon them, his boys, such fine dwarves both of them.

“I hate waiting,” Kili commented.  “Maybe we can wait at The Bell.”

“You three keep your clothing clean,” Dis commanded as she walked out in a long robe and with her hair up.  “No taverns.  It will be hard enough to get everyone to behave as it is.”  Together the four of them walked towards the center of town.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Fili stood facing his One in a small room of the Temple before statures of Mahal and Yavanna, eyes watering from the incense (or at least that what he was telling himself), listening to the chanted words of worship and reverence.  Their hands were wrapped in the binding cloth he had watched Kili so carefully weave and Kili was so beautiful in his dark green tunic and with his dark eyes shining.  As the Priest recited the duties of a good husband and father, all the things he must do, all the things he must aspire to be, he did not hear the words.  He only tried to memorize Kili’s face at the moment, so much joy after so much heartache.  His beautiful Omega, his One.

“I, Kili, Son of Dis, Daughter of Thrian, Son of Thror and Heir to the Line of Durin…”  The words washed over Fili, a quiet and loving benediction, his assurance that all he knew and all he had strove for was right and he would never fall short of the measure of his lover’s eyes.  “…to keep and protect you,” he replied.  “All of my days, in this world and into the next.”

“Kili,” he began, but choked to a stop at the sight of tears running down his beloved’s face that his bound hands could not wipe away.  “You are my _Sanâzyung._   Everything I could ever wish for and I swear to make a good life for you and our children.  Thank you,” he choked again.  “Thank you for choosing me.”

 _“Ûrzudel,”_ Kili leaned forward to press foreheads.  “I love you so much!”

And with that the Priest laid her hands on their shoulders and declared them Bonded, Alpha to Omega, to not be separated in this world or the next.  The room erupted because dwarves are not meant to be silent and solemn creatures and out of joy, because so many had given so much to see this day happen.  They held onto each other, Kili pressing his mouth fiercely down over Fili’s until they felt gentle hands pushing them towards the door. 

“Come on, you two,” Thorin kept them moving towards the hall where they would feast with their family, friends and the emissaries before their bonding night.  There would be other bondings that day and Dis and Thorin would be present at all of them but for now this was their moment. 

“No feast!” Kili declared.  “Sex!”  The crowd laughed and several of the Alphas present pounded Fili heartily on the back, wishing him luck.  He grabbed Kili around the waist and got him pointed in the right direction.  _“This way.”_

They sat side-by-side next to their mother and uncle, sharing one plate and one cup, symbolic of the life they were to share together.  They had gone to the expense of buying several fattened pigs from the local farmers and roasted them in a pit.  The big animals now sat gracing tables full of food.  As tradition dictated the feast was shared by all the families who were bonding that day so that none would go without, be they rich or poor.  The boys enjoyed the food and the singing, Kili feeding his new mate roasted pork skin and potatoes while Fili gently rubbed circles into the small of his back and smiled happily.  Ori sat up near them, temporarily distanced from his brothers by virtue of being in the bonding party, and using the opportunity to chat happily with Dwalin, much to his brother’s great disapproval.  Odne sat next to Geirmund, who was still the most envied Alpha in the settlement.  Kili smiled to see them, the beautiful, cultured Omega next to her large and rough Alpha.  Their cousins, the Sons of Fundin and of Groin sat near them, further down the Sons of Ri and the Sons of Ur also sat.  Bombur had taken charge of the feast and Bofur the singing, of which there were many happy songs of bonding and all matters connubial. 

Finally the crowd gathered to watch the bonding party hoist the laughing pair up onto their shoulders and carry them to a chamber that had been set aside for them, for tradition stated that all new bondings should start under the stone to make them strong.  Thorin laid a hand on each of their heads and spoke the words of blessing and shut the door, not to return until the next morning.  “Oh, Mahal!” Fili exclaimed, relieved. 

Kili jumped into his arms with a whoop.  “And now we are bonded,” he crooned happily.  “And now to bed.”

“Yes, to bed,” Fili held him tightly.  “Why do I have the feeling they’re all out there listening to us?”

“Let them listen!”  Kili started divesting him of their formal clothing as Fili walked them towards the bed which dominated the small chamber.  He nipped at his Alpha’s mouth, trying to encourage him to be forward.  In truth Fili was nervous.  _A good Alpha takes his time.  A good Alpha never causes his mate to hurt._ He wanted nothing more than to be a good Alpha to his Kili.  He carefully helped him out of his formals and lowered him onto the bed.  “I love you so much!”

“Show me.”  Kili raised his arms above his head and stretched out upon the coverlet, so lovely with his dark eyes and hair the color of deep earth.  Fili spent a long moment just looking down at him.  “So beautiful.  You are so beautiful.”

He grabbed Kili’s legs and gently slid him to the edge of the bed, sliding those long legs up over his shoulders.  “Fili…?”  His question was answered as his Alpha knelt down and started kissing the insides of his thighs, giving little nips here and there, reveling in the delightful sounds his Omega was making underneath him.  He worked his way up slowly, sucking marks as he went.  _“Mine.”_

 _“Yours,”_ Kili panted.  Fili ran his tongue around the entrance and gently sank the tip in.  He grabbed onto Kili’s hips as he strained upwards, holding him down as he plunged in.  This had become his new favorite thing to do, the closest he would allow himself to his Omega who was sighing his praises as he writhed on the bed.  Fili sank down as far as he could go, his beard wet with the taste and smell of his mate.  He reached up and stroked his other’s swollen and leaking shaft, his other’s feet scrabbling on his naked back.  He licked, sucked and nipped, holding on firmly when the object of his attention tried to scoot away on the bed.  He stroked his loves shaft with a steady rhythm, listing to the gasping pants coming from those sultry lips.  _His._   Kili had chosen him, the Omega of royal blood who could have had a kingdom for the asking.  _His beautiful One._   The one to grace his bed, take his seed, bear his children.  That last thought sent him surging forward, twisting as he stroked the way he knew Kili liked it, rewarded when Kili bucked up underneath his hands, warm liquid flowing across his fist and down his chin.

He crawled up onto the bed and pulled Kili to the middle, kissing him gently.  “Thank you,” he crooned.  “Thank you, my beautiful One.”

“I love you,” Kili whispered against his lips.  Fili cosseted him and gently cleaned his belly.  Then Kili got up on his hands and knees.  “Now you,” and before Fili could object he was gasping, head falling back as Kili went down on him.  He was kneeling on the coverlet, running his hands over his other’s back, grasping handfuls of dark, silky hair.  Kili was gazing up at him through dark lashes as he flickered his tongue over the slit, running the tip around the head of his Alpha’s cock, putting on a display that nearly made Fili lose control right there.  He paused with the head just on his lips and made sure Fili was watching as he slowly worked his way down, tongue working the sensitive underside and Fili could not look away.  He fisted his hands into his mate’s hair, taking care not to pull or push down, helpless to do anything but watch as his mate pleasured him.  When Kili reached up to rub the sensitive spot behind his stones he pulled away.  _“Not yet,”_ he whispered. _“Not yet.”_

Fili lifted him up into a kiss, deep, possessive and passionate as his last reservations slipped away.  This day, this best and happiest day, just for them.  Laying Kili back onto the pillows he slotted himself between his Omega’s legs and gently pressed his knees up towards his chest.  Kili never took his eyes off him, never looked away from his face, his expression one of absolute trust and want and desire of his Alpha expressed with kiss-swollen lips and shining skin.  Fili slowly ran the head of his cock over the entrance, wetting it and torturing his mate with the promise of so much fullness.  Kili’s eyes closed as he bared his throat, running his hands down between his thighs with a dusky sigh that made Fili lean in gently, letting his mate’s voice guide him.  “Oh, yes…” Kili choked out.  “Like that!”  Fili rocked forward, not expecting how good the clenching tight heat felt, not sure how deep or how fast, just letting Kili set the pace for them.

“Oh… oh…,” his beautiful Omega panted, moving on the bed beneath him.  He had to wait for Kili to relax enough to allow him to move forward and it was some form of exquisite torture.  “I need… I need…”  He started moving in earnest now, wringing heated words and exclamations from his one.  Kili couldn’t keep from clenching down, the feeling of being filled so full almost too much for to take.  Fili worked his big cock in deeper and deeper, pinning his other to the bed with his weight while his Omega yielded himself beneath him.  He had to start stroking harder to go as deep as he wanted, leaning on his forearms now while Kili gripped him hard, panting and swearing beneath him.

For Kili it was almost being filled beyond full, to the limits of what he could take while every thrust lit sparks up between his legs.  All he could do was lie there and take it as his Alpha pushed balls-deep into him, stretching him, making him cry out with unrestrained pleasure.  He begged for release, desperate for the exquisite drag of skin, for those long, slow thrusts to hit his sweet spot again and again.  Fili was panting and growling above him now, the look on his face causing his Omega’s breath to hitch.  Kili tried to reach down to stroke his own swollen member only to have his Alpha snatch his hands away.  “No,” Fili panted.  “When I say!”

There were no more words then, just the shaking of limbs and slap of wet bodies and the more than urgent need to finalize their bond, for the Alpha to mark his Omega and claim him in a way that no one could ever touch.  Their eyes locked and Kili knew he had never seen his other so far beyond control as in that moment.  All the tightly-held control slipping away as Fili looked down on him, possessively feral and dominant and then a hot wetness was painting Kili’s chest and stomach as waves of pleasure rode up from their coupling.  His back arched and he cried out, his voice echoing off the stone as it joined the warlike cry of his other and he was filled with an overflowing hot wetness that made him both burn and gave him blessed relief, Fili giving him everything.

They crashed down together in a heap, Kili’s legs slowly relaxing while Fili lay limp and blessed-out on top of him.  They were wrecked, painted with sweat and semen to wrung out to care.  Carefully Fili disengaged and crawled up to kiss his One, slow and gentle.  “Are you okay?  Did I hurt you? I’m sorry I was so rough…”  Kili stopped him with another kiss and then nuzzled in under his chin.  “Is okay…” he mumbled.  “You didn’t hurt me.”  He wasn’t sore, but still he was glad they didn’t have to make the trek back to the house until the morrow.

“Did you,” Fili hesitated.  “I mean, was it…?”

“Not sure,” Kili answered.  “I think you will need to do that to me again when we wake up.  Just to compare.”

“We have a week, you know.”

Kili hummed happily at that thought as he dozed off.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Thorin and Dwalin stood at the small forge in back of the house, trying to get some work finished in the late afternoon light.  It was three days after the bonding ceremony and the boys had not slowed down yet, taking full advantage of their seven-day honeymoon.  Unfortunately it meant that nothing was getting done at the house because of the noise.  He turned to his sister as she walked by carrying a basket of jars for her root cellar.  “How can they be this loud?”

“They left the window open,” she replied without missing a beat.  “Your turn.”

Dwalin snickered as Thorin threw his hands up.  “Fine!  Not like I can get anything done with that going on!”  He marched into the house, up the stair and banged loudly on their door.  “Hey you two!  Close that window!”  The sound abruptly ceased.  _“Good!”_ thought Thorin.

Inside the room Fili had his mate pinned up against the wall.  Now that he had full permission to celebrate their joining to its fullest – was expected to as part of his duties as a good Alpha – he was giving his appreciative and vocal Omega no rest, taking him at every opportunity.  They looked at the door and then at each other.  “Oops!”

Fili darted to close it while Kili made for the bed on wobbling legs and tried to crawl across.  Fili chased after him, catching him on his hands and knees.  “Come here you!”

In the yard Thorin shook his head as sounds still filtered down.  “I’m done!”

“I’mma mood to head to the Bell,” Dwalin offered.

“I think I’ll join you,” Dis offered.  “I can finish up later.  They have to sleep sometime.”

Thorin joined them on the path towards the center of town.  “As bad as when you and Nali… _Ouch!”_

 

 

 

\- FIN -

 

 

 

  

 

 

Ûrzudel - 'sun of all suns'

Bahzundush - Raven

Givashel - Treasure of all treasures  
Nadadel - brother of (all) brothers

Sanâzyung - perfect (true/pure) love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me thus far!!!
> 
> As always - comments are meat & bread to a writer - so feel free to leave one here or pm me on http://withywindlesdaughter.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> These are bits 'n' bobs from "Kidnapped!" that didn't fit into the main story. Enjoy!


End file.
